New Delhi: Former Lok Sabha Speaker PA Sangma, who is considered an underdog in the Presidential race, on Saturday pinned his hopes on ‘big number of hidden votes’ and equated himself to the ‘black man’ Barack Obama making it to the White House.
“We have (the case of) Barack Obama…Nobody thought a black man would ever occupy White House. If a black man can become the President of America, why can’t an Adivasi become the President of India,” the NCP leader, whose party has refused to back him for the Presidential race, said.
Interacting with the members of the Indian Women’s Press Corp (IWPC) Sangma said he ‘hopes’ that a consensus would evolve on his candidature as ‘neither UPA nor NDA has numbers … Besides there are a big number of hidden votes…you never know’.
“Nobody sees who will vote for whom. It is a secret ballot. How can it be a question of whom one would vote,” the NCP general secretary promptly replied when asked whether his daughter Agatha Sangma, whould vote for him.
He said his daughter, who is a Minister in the UPA government, had started campaign for a tribal candidate for the Presidentship but stopped it as soon as he entered the fray with the support of two tall leaders — Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu and Orissa — J Jayalalithaa and Naveen Patnaik.
“My daughter is part of UPA, I am not. When I went to Chennai, PA Sangma was not a candidate…that time we were campaigning for a tribal candiate. She stopped the moment Jayalalithaa and Patnaik announced support to me….She will go by what UPA decides,” Sangma said.
He reiterated that he had sought appointments with political leaders including Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to press for a tribal candidate for the post of the President.
Asked how he expected to get Congress support when he had opposed Sonia becoming the Prime Minister on the issue of her foreign origin, Sangma said his opposition was not personal.
“I opposed her purely on the question of principle …nothing to do with any individual. About principle, Prime Minister of India or President of India has to be an Indian citizen and I stand by that till today, till tomorrow, till day after also,” said the former Congress leader.
Sangma had revolted on the issue of Sonia’s foreign origin in 1999 and left Congress to join hands with Sharad Pawar to form the Nationalist Congress Party.
He said Sonia had an opportunity to become the Prime Minister but she opted out and the ‘matter was over and the chapter is closed’.
As far as the question of winning without support of Congress is concerned, he said, “I have support of many individual candidates. Remember Presidential election is conducted through secret ballot…so number on paper will not work…It is the actual voting on the designated day.” He said he has met a host of political leaders, including Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Prakash Karat, Nitish Kumar, D Raja and Mulayam Singh for support.
BJP and the Left would take a decision on support to any candidate soon, Sangma said.
When pointed out that his own NCP has already rebuffed him by refusing to support him, he said, “We (NCP) are not partners of UPA everywhere. It is only in Delhi.” (PTI)