Agencies/New Delhi
The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) yesterday named former Lok Sabha speaker P A Sangma as its candidate for the post of president.Senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said Sangma was a “tall leader” and had an “exceptional term as the speaker,” of the lower house of parliament.Last week, the ruling Congress-led United progressive Alliance declared Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee as its candidate.Elections for India’s 13th president will be held on July 19. The winner will replace Pratibha Patil.She is the first woman to hold India’s highest constitutional post.“Despite two meetings and much deliberations over the presidential candidate, the BJP and its allies have not been unable to reach a consensus on the candidate,” Swaraj told a press conference in New Delhi. She said the party had also considered former president A P J Abdul Kalam but since he had declined the offer to stand again, the BJP was nominating Sangma.Swaraj appealed to her party allies to support Sangma’s candidacy.“We held several formal and informal meetings, but a consensus could not be achieved. Two of our constituent parties are still not in favour of it, but we have decided we need to back a candidate,” Swaraj said. Her colleague Arun Jaitley too appealed to National Democratic Alliance (NDA) allies to support Sangma. “We will appeal to all allies to rethink on their stand and support Sangma,” Jaitley said.However, minutes after the BJP’s press conference, Janata Dal-United chief Sharad Yadav told reporters that they were sticking to their stand. “According to the present situation, our support is to Pranab Mukherjee, but we are not supporting the Congress,” he said. He also said “there is no threat to the alliance (NDA)”, and they were in favour of Mukherjee, not the Congress. The BJP, meanwhile, said it was for the sake of democracy to have a contest. Jaitley said they were not ready to support the ruling alliance in an election where an “investigating agency” was being used to garner support. “We don’t want to support a government which has manoeuvered investigating agencies to the support of a political class,” he said.Sangma is now pitted against Mukherjee and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has appealed for cross-party support for the finance minister.Two important regional parties, the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samajwadi Party, have already announced their support for Mukherjee. But Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress, a government ally, has refused to support Mukherjee. It is not yet clear if she will support Sangma. The former speaker meanwhile appealed to NDA allies JD-U and Shiv Sena as well as Banerjee to back him.Referring to the BJP’s support, Sangma said: “Today, I’m very happy that the BJP has taken a stand to back my candidature. It is not only the BJP, but other allies like the Akali Dal, the JMM (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha) and smaller parties have spoken to me and told me that they are with the decision of the BJP.”“The JD-U and Shiv Sena have taken a different stand. I once again appeal to all the allies of NDA to extend their support to my candidature. I will make my tour programme and will be going out all over, personally asking support from both in UPA and NDA allies,” 64-year-old Sangma said.Asked whether Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress would support him, Sangma said he was hopeful that the party would stand behind him as its first choice, former president Kalam, has decided not to contest.“I had spoken to madam Mamata Banerjee, seeking her support, and she from her part requested to support her candidate Dr Kalam. Now that Kalam is out of race, I hope Mamata Banerjee will support me. Even yesterday, I spoke to her. Tomorrow and the day after I will speak to her depending on the availability. But I’m very..very..hopeful that Mamata Banerjee will be with me,” Sangma said.Asked about the fate of his daughter Agatha Sangma, a minister of state in the UPA government, he said: “My daughter is a part of the UPA...She is the minister and a very mature person. She has the capacity of taking a decision on her own. I do not have to tell her.”The BJP announced its support to Sangma a day after he resigned from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which he co-founded with Maharashtra stalwart Sharad Pawar, now the agriculture minister, to join the presidential race.Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Tamil Nadu’s Jayalalithaa were the first to back Sangma for president, saying no tribal candidate had so far been named for the post.The NCP had decided to support Mukherjee.The presidency is largely a ceremonial post but with a fragmented electorate often throwing up precariously placed coalition governments, a lot depends on his or her judgment and impartiality.The office of the Indian president is voted on by members in both houses of parliament and regional assemblies. Mukherjee and Sangma: contest