By IANS,
Raipur : After Bharatiya Janata Party Rajya Sabha MP Nand Kumar Sai, now senior Congress leader and former union minister Arvind Netam has openly backed former Lok Sabha speaker P.A. Sangma for the president’s post.
Netam told mediamen here Tuesday that he extends support to Sangma for the post of the country’s president and appealed to all political parties to join the Tamil Nadu and Odisha chief ministers — J. Jayalalitha and Naveen Patnaik, respectively — in backing a tribal leader for the post.
Netam’s statement has surprised many Congress leaders in the state as the party’s central leadership is yet to firm up its view on the issue.
Chhattisgarh’s ruling BJP too was surprised Sunday when Sai, its noted tribal face in the state, strongly advocated Sangma’s name for the president’s post and advised his party to announce support for him.