Amidst growing speculation of the Chief of Defence Staff General Sarath Fonseka likely to emerge as the consensus presidential candidate of the opposition in the eventuality of the Presidential elections being announced, President Mahinda Rajpaksa yesterday said if General Sarath Fonseka submitted his resignation from the post with the intention of contesting the upcoming Presidential election, he would accept it forthwith.<br/><br/>A local daily reported that the comments from the President came when some of his Ministerial colleagues inquired whether there would be a legal problem for General Fonseka if he wanted to resign soon to contest an election.<br/><br/>The President had said there were many reports in this regard and if he received a resignation letter from General Fonseka he would act within half an hour to let the General know that he had accepted the resignation. He said he would act with a clear political conscience and would not hesitate to accept General Fonseka’s resignation from the post of Chief of Defence Staff.<br/><br/>Meanwhile Mano Ganeshan of the DPF party has admitted that they are in ‘discussions’ with Sarath Fonseka regarding being the consensus candidate of the major opposition parties and have sent him a set of questions. He said that he ‘will await responses from Sarath Fonseka’.<br/>