President poll: Jayalalithaa lobbies for PA Sangma

In the run-up to the upcoming Presidential poll, AIADMK supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has lobbied for former Lok Sabha speaker PA Sangma's candidature.

Jayalalithaa on Sunday spoke to the leaders of the NDA and the Left parties to garner support for PA Sangma's candidature.

She spoke to the likes of LK Advani, Prakash Karat, AB Bardhan, Chandrababu Naidu, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Parkash Singh Badal.

But the proposal to nominate Sangma as President on the grounds that he is a tribal, has failed in his own party, the NCP. However, with a sizeable percentage in the electoral college, the AIADMK chief is bound to play an important role in the race for the top post.

Earlier, Odisha Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik and Jayalalithaa had said that they will support Sangma for President's post.

Sangma said he along with a few other leaders was meeting leaders of various political parties to push for a tribal to become the next President.

Besides him, there were several other tribal leaders including Karia Munda (BJP), who is Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker, Union Minister Krishna Chandra Deo (Congress), former Nagaland chief minister SC Jamir (Congress) and former union minister Arvind Neta, he said.

"Any tribal leader can become the next president that is what we are trying to achieve, he said.