NCP asks Sangma to withdraw from Presidential race

With P A Sangma insisting on contesting the Presidential poll, the NCP today asked him to withdraw, saying the party's line was to support Pranab Mukherjee for the top constitutional post "unconditionally".

"Let me make it very clear that Mr Sangma does not enjoy support of the NCP. We wish that he does not contest. If he does, I cannot sat anything now, he is a senior leader, but I don't think he should defy the party's direction or the line of thinking," senior NCP leader and Union Minister Praful Patel said here.

Asked if he was hinting of any action against Sangma, Patel said, "I am nobody to take action, but the fact is nobody -- either me or anybody -- should defy the line or the direction the party has taken."

"And in this case, the party's direction and the line is to support Pranab Mukherjee unconditionally," Patel told NDTV.

Sangma is still insisting on contesting, saying that he has been supported by AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa and BJD chief Naveen Patnaik.

"I am in the fray as a tribal candidate, not as a NCP candidate," Sangma, a former Lok Sabha Speaker, had said earlier.