President Pranab Mukherjee's five-year term expires on July 24.

The BJP's committee consists of Venkaiah Naidu, Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley, who is currently abroad. Apart from allies, they have spoken already to representatives of opposition parties like Sharad Pawar's NCP and Mayawati's BSP to build consensus.

Coming Friday, it is learnt ministers appointed by the BJP to handle consultations with other parties will meet with #Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Left leader Sitaram Yechury.

The opposition which met separately under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi has indicated that based on who the government picks, it will decide whether it wants to nominate a different candidate, which would then result in an election on July 17.

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