Presidential hopeful and former Lok Sabha Speaker, Mr P. A. Sangma, said on Saturday he had a “huge number of hidden votes” to back his claim. He said that since both the UPA and NDA did not have the numbers now, the chance of a consensus candidate for president was greater.
In an interaction with women journalists here on Saturday, Mr Sangma, who is being pitched as a tribal and a Christian candidate, said he lived on hope, especially as his candidature had been proposed by two ‘tall' leaders like Ms J. Jayalalithaa and Mr Naveen Patnaik.
Referrring to the US President, Mr Barack Obama, the Nationalist Congress Party leader from the North East said “We have (the case of) Barack Obama...Nobody thought an African-American would ever occupy White House. If an African-American can become the President of America, why can't an Adivasi become the President of India?”
Asked who his daughter, Ms Agatha Sangma, a Minister in UPA-2, would vote for, Mr Sangma said, “She will go by what UPA decides.”
He said he had written to Congress President, Ms Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee to press for a tribal candidate.
Commenting on the performance of UPA-2, Mr Sangma said the very fact that their key allies, Trinamool Congress and DMK were on the streets protesting the petrol price hike spoke for itself.