New Delhi: NCP has pulled up union minister and party leader Agatha Sangma for actively canvassing for her father P A Sangma’s candidature in the presidential election, to be held on July 19.
A senior NCP leader said it was noticed that Agatha, who is a party MP from Tura and Union Minister of State for Rural Development had accompanied her father and former Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma to Bhubhaneswar after his candidature was announced by BJD president and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
“She has been told not to campaign for Sangma as she is an union minister and an NCP MP,” the leader said.
NCP has already declared that it cannot propose Sangma’s name as a presidential candidate as it does not have the requisite number. The party has announced its support for the UPA candidate.
Meanwhile, Union Minister of State for Water Resources Vincent H Pala has ruled out the possibility of former Lok Sabha Speaker winning the Presidential election and said all the Congress MPs from the North-East will vote for the candidate selected by the Congress and the UPA for the country’s top post.
“All MPs from the north east are bounded by the Congress high command and party decision in the Presidential election,” Pala said in Shillong.
Expressing that he, a Congress MP from Shillong, would be happy to vote for a person from the north east, Pala said, “Even if few of us vote for him (Sangma), it would not make enough margin to ensure his victory as most MPs of the region would be voting for the UPA candidate.”
According to Pala, the region has a representation of about 30 in both the Houses.
Pala who was here to review party’s preparedness on the 2013 assembly poll in Meghalaya.
“We have shortlisted about 40 candidates,” Pala said. (PTI)