Sangma as tribal is good for Presidential post: Naveen Patnaik

By Sanjeeb Kumar Sahoo/ Alexander Dhissa

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today, fuelling speculation that the  Former Speaker and NCP leader P A Sangma will be best candidate for coming presidential election in country.

“P A Sangma is perfect candidates for president election and our party Biju Janata Dal (BJD) choice also. So I have also discussed Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J,Jaylalitta regarding his candidature today by telephone”  said Patnaik, he is also chief of BJD.

“I have discussed with our party senior leaders in meeting and we have decided to support his president candidate” said Patnaik.

However, the BJP is likely to prefer former president Kalam getting a second term.

The Congress, on the other hand, is batting for Vice President Hamid Ansari and Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar for the candidature.

Other names that are likely to come up in the race to the Rashtrapati Bhawan are Pranab Mukherjee, Mulayam Singh, Gopal Gandhi and Sushil Kumar Shinde.

President Pratibha Patil’s term ends in the third week of July.

The UPA has over 40 percent of the total votes in the Electoral College while the NDA has less than 30 percent. Neither grouping can elect a presidential candidate on its own electoral strength.

Sangma was one of the founders of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) along with Sharad Pawar and Tariq Anwar in 1999, after they expelled from Congress.In January 2004, P.A.Sangma created a split in the NCP. This happened after Sharad Pawar became close to the NCP’s former rival Sonia Gandhi.

After losing a battle for the NCP election symbol, Sangma later merged his faction with Mamta Bannerjee’s Trinamool Congress, forming the Nationalist Trinamool Congress. He resigned from his Lok Sabha seat on October 10, 2005 as a member of All India Trinamool Congress, and was reelected as NCP Candidate on February 2006.

In the Lok Sabha elections 2004 Sangma was one of two NTC MPs elected. He resigned from 14th Lok Sabha in March 2008, to take part in Meghalaya Legislative Assembly election, 2008. As of now (2009), Sangma is back in the NCP and serves as the NCP General Secretary.