From CK Nayak
New Delhi: In a day marked by rapid political developments, a determined Purno A Sangma on Wednesday resigned from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and also quit as MLA from Tura Assembly constituency to contest the Presidential polls as the Opposition candidate, but made it clear that his decision will not affect the party unit in Meghalaya.
Purno also announced that he would shift his campaign office from his daughter Agatha Sangma’s official residence.
Purno’s resignation came after weeks of suspense and high drama with his party NCP urging him to withdraw from the fray since the NCP, which is a constituent of the Congress-led UPA, is supporting Pranab Mukherjee.
Meanwhile, in a boost to Purno, the BJP-led NDA minus its two constituents – the JD(U) and the Shiv Sena – was quick to project Purno as its candidate for the President’s post.
Purno, one of the founder members of the NCP, sent his resignation letter to party chief Sharad Pawar soon after Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy met him on Wednesday apparently to pledge his support. NCP, which was quick to accept Purno’s resignation, later stated that the development would not affect the party.
Belligerent UPA partner Mamata Banerjee of Trinamool Congress is yet to express her support and is believed to be contemplating to abstain from voting.
“I hereby tender my resignation from the primary membership of the NCP with immediate effect. I place on record my deep gratitude to the president, other office bearers and rank and file of NCP for the courtesies extended to me by them at personal level while I was a member of the party,” Purno wrote in his resignation letter.
In a statement issued later, he said he had no option but to resign from NCP without any personal intent whatsoever of embarrassing the party and its leadership.
Talking about the circumstances in which he had to quit, the 64-year-old leader said, “Disinclination of the NCP to endorse my candidature amounts to a denial of the aspirations of the tribals of the country,” he said.
Purno noted that his candidature had been projected by the Tribal Forum of India and he could not ‘ignore the feeling of the tribals that Raisina Hill (Rashtrapati Bhavan) should continue to be a distant dream for them’.
The former Lok Sabha Speaker, whose candidature for Presidentship was initiated by AIADMK and BJD, said he had received ‘promises of support from senior leaders of non-Congress parties as well including those in the NDA’.