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Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday said that if his name is doing the rounds for the post of president, it was speculative. "I cannot respond to any speculative question," Mukherjee told media here. Reports were floating in the media that the Congress party has been trying to reach out to its alliance partners to develop a consensus on Vice President Hamid Ansari or Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee for the prestigious post. However, the Congress Party has remained tight-lipped on the issue. Current incumbent Pratibha Devisingh Patil's term ends on July 25 this year. She was sworn-in as the 12th president of India on July 25, 2007. The president is the constitutional head of the country and also the supreme commander of the armed forces. Mukherjee will be attending the Asian Development Bank's (ADB's) 45th Annual Board of Governors' meeting to discuss the pressing economic problems facing the world and to find a solution to initiate development at Manila in Philippines . He will also meet Haruhiko Kuroda, the President of the ADB to discuss the need to work closely to enhance South Asia Sub Regional Economic Cooperation (SASEC), before flying to Dhaka to hold delegation- level talks with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. He will hold bilateral discussions with Akihiko Tanaka, President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and also meet his counterparts from Bangladesh and Bhutan . He will also meet opposition leader Khaleda Zia, and participate in the concluding ceremony of 150th anniversary celebrations of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore.

Mukherjee says his nomination for President's post is mere speculation