Addressing a press conference at Delhi, Mamata Banerjee confidently says, Mulayam is with her: "Mulayamji and I are together." She "congratulated Kalam in advance" and maintained that he was 'our' candidate.

When told that the SP's Ram Gopal Yadav had issued a statement earlier this morning saying Kalam was Mamata's candidate, not the SP's and that the word 'hamara' was used to indicate her and not our.

Mamata listened quietly and said that hamara meant Mulayam Singhji and in a moment of self-deprecation said her Hindi may not be good, but hamara meant ours.

She said at the press conference on Wednesday, Mulayam Singh had proposed, the candidates, and she had supported him, "since he was a senior leader and that is how democracy functioned."

She said they would stick with their three candidates and requested reporters not to "put Congress words in their mouths."  She requested that a clarion call be made to all political parties to choose Kalam as president. "The President's post is a golden post and there should be no divide and rule and no politics," she said.