P A Sangma resigned on Wednesday from the primary membership of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) which is in alliance with the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), thus helping the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) find a way to end its dilemma on supporting the former Lok Sabha Speaker for the coming presidential election.
The 64-year-old leader from the northeast is likely to get support from the country's principal opposition party, as he has already met BJP veteran L K Advani a couple of times, besides senior leaders, including party president Nitin Gadkari, leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and her upper house counterpart, Arun Jaitley.
Yet, the road to Raisina Hill would not be easy for the eight-time Member of Parliament from Meghalaya. For one, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is divided on supporting Sangma, as vital partners like the Janata Dal (United), Shiv Sena and the Shiromani Akali Dal have decided to vote in favour of finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, the UPA candidate for the top post. Further, there is division within the BJP on supporting Sangma, though it now seems that the will of Advani and Swaraj would prevail. The two leaders are not in favour of giving Mukherjee a walkover in the July 19 contest.
The Maharashtra-based Sena, the BJP's oldest ally, is strongly opposed to supporting Sangma. So much so, the Bal Thackeray-founded right-wing party has written an editorial in its mouthpiece, Saamna, asking Sangma to follow the footsteps of former President A P J Abdul Kalam and not contest against Mukherjee.
Sangma, on his part, said in his resignation letter that he was quitting the NCP "without any personal intent whatsoever of embarrassing the party and its leadership". NCP chief and Union minister Sharad Pawar accepted the letter.
Tomorrow, NCP leaders are scheduled to meet to discuss Sangma's resignation. The party is not ruling out action against the deserter's daughter, Agatha Sangma, who is a minister in the Manmohan Singh government.
Subramanian Swamy, head of the Janata Party which is an NDA constituent, met Sangma. To him, Sangma is a candidate of AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa and Biju Janata Dal leader Naveen Patnaik. "The only question that remains is whether the NDA will back him," Swamy told reporters later. "A final decision will be taken at the meeting of the alliance." Even as a section of the BJP leadership is not in favour of supporting Sangma, they do not want to openly back Mukherjee, a long-time Congress leader. For, the party doesn't want to send a message that the opposition is siding with the main party in the ruling side. Outside the BJP, Sangma enjoys support from Jayalalithaa, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, and Patnaik, her Odisha counterpart.
The Sangma move came after Advani spoke to him, and also sent Swamy to Sangma's residence to ensure his resignation from the NCP. The BJP has already burnt its fingers in finding its presidential candidate as Kalam chose not to contest. It was not just the BJP that was willing to support India's 'missile man'; even Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress was keen on making him President a second time.
| POLE POSITION |
| Presidential candidate |
Party in support |
Vote in % |
PRANAB MUKHERJEE
 |
Congress Party |
30.30 |
| Samajwadi Party |
6.30 |
| Bahujan Samaj Party |
4.00 |
| Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) |
2.20 |
| DMK |
2.20 |
| Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) |
0.80 |
| Janata Dal (United) |
3.80 |
| Shiv Sena |
1.70 |
| National Conference |
0.50 |
| Rashtriya Lok Dal |
0.50 |
| Janata Dal (Secular) |
0.60 |
| Total |
52.90 |
PA SANGMA
 |
Bharatiya Janata Party |
21.20 |
| AIADMK |
3.30 |
| BJD |
2.80 |
| TDP |
1.90 |
| Total |
29.20 |
- Left parties with more than 4.8% votes have yet to decide who to support
- Trinamool Congress with 4.40% votes to decide on support
|
Today, even as the BJP is preparing to support Sangma, the party is unlikely to muster much support for him. A recent meeting between Advani and Jayalalithaa saw the senior most BJP leader arguing that support of two chief ministers would not be enough to make Sangma the 13th President.
On his part, Mukherjee on Wednesday got support from Trinamool Congress's Kabir Suman, as the party MP spoke in support the of the finance minister's candidature. A final decision on the matter, though, will be taken by Banerjee.
