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Minister for Water Resources Works and Housing, Hon. Alban Bagbin, has utterly rubbished Newspaper reports claiming that he has been penciled to be the future running mate to Former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, when she is elected to lead the party. The latest report was published in the Wednesday June 8 edition of the Daily Dispatch Newspaper. Mr. Ben Ephson, a political pollster and Editor in Chief of the Newspaper, said he had stumbled on a list of future appointees into Nana Konadu�s Government if she is elected to lead the party in the 2012 elections. The said list, mentioned the names of some appointees currently serving in the Mills administration, who have condemned the publication. Surprisingly, the camp of the Former First Lady has equally rubbished the existence of the list and questioned the Newspaper�s source. Hon. Kingsford Sumana Babgin, who has been touted a quite supporter of the Rawlingses, is not the least excited with the latest publication. But the MP did not give a straight answer when he was asked by the Host of Eyewitness News on Citi FM, whether he will accept to partner Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings. �I have never been contacted, consulted, informed or in any way communicated to about my possible position as running mate to any person. I have never discussed it with any person and I was really surprised it got a front page publication by Dispatch without my input�. According to Mr. Babgin, although the Former First Lady and her Husband, the party Founder, have paid their dues to the party and country, it was improper for anyone to contest the sitting President. �I don�t think it is proper for a sitting President to be contested at a party primary. History abounds for all of us to learn. And therefore I will not be anybody�s running mate to try to contest Professor Mills. If I did not support Professor Mills, I would never have accepted to be his Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing. But it is important for us to acknowledge that the Nana Konadu and the Former President really sacrificed and served their nation by using the better part of their life for this country. I highly respect and honor them for that�. �But I don�t believe that this is a proper time for us to do what we are doing to our party. I think that this idea of factionalism is dividing the party. I will not be part of the culture of factionalism. And I believe strongly that we should still have people who can at all times bring the party together. Belonging to Atta Mills and Nana Konadu faction, will not help the country or our party. Democracy is about consensus building. It is when you fail to build a consensus that you go for a vote. And therefore all efforts must be aimed at building consensus first. And for me, I know there is a season for everything. And this is not the season for us to be pulling apart. This is the season for us to be getting together�. The Nadowli West MP largely accused the media for their role in stoking the fires in the NDC hence the factionalism. �It is only in the minds of journalists that I will be considered running mate. I don�t think it�s in the minds of any of the leading personalities. And I think it is for a purpose. I have led this party as the Minority Leader for eight good years, and the differences between the Founder and the current President is not today. It�s been there and we have managed it all these years. It�s just because people are stoking the fires that is why the gap is widening. And some of us are getting afraid of the efforts that we have to make after the primaries to try and reconcile the two factions. That is a herculean task� he admitted. Hon. Bagbin however believes the party has not done much to build consensus among the perceived factions. �There was no attempt at building consensus. There has not any opportunity for the two factions to meet. I think it is time we do that. Individual groupings in the party cannot solve such matters. We need the likes of the Council of Elders and the rest. There is the need to find out from the other side why they are pulling apart. It is important and it is never too late to build consensus. I think when we do that; we will have a more decorous and civil contest where at the end of the day, we can still shake hands as brothers and sisters and stay with the NDC�. �Many of us are not in the NDC because of personalities, but because of the philosophy espoused by the party. So we will continue to be loyal to the NDC�s social democratic philosophy which we believe is the vehicle that can better advance the national interest and develop this nation. Individuals will come and go but NDC has come to stay� he noted.