President post: Crucial UPA meeting on Friday

New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday night appears to be zeroing in on the candidature of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee for the President's post.

The party's core group headed by Sonia Gandhi met at the residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and is believed to have decided to put forward his name at the meeting of UPA on Friday.

"No dark horse" is under consideration in Congress-UPA camp, remarked a top source.

Though the names of Mukherjee and Vice President Hamid Ansari had come up during Congress President's discussion with Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday, the leadership is veering round the name of the Finance Minister.

The UPA is meeting on Friday, which is expected to formally endorse the name of Mukherjee as the alliance candidate.