Sangma may lose but Jaya has gained national stature

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Going by the numbers, P.A. Sangma is sure to lose in the Presidential poll notwithstanding his faith in ‘tribal’ magic but his main sponsor J. Jayalalithaa has won substantial political ground in pursuing her national political agenda.

The AIADMK chief was the first to propose Sangma as Presidential candidate. He had called on her on May 15 seeking support. She spoke to BJD leader and Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik and together, the two leaders decided to back the former Lok Sabha Speaker in the battle for Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Ms Jayalalithaa made the announcement at Chennai on May 17 through a statement: ‘No tribal has become the President in all these 60 years since India became independent. Sangma is not only a tribal but also possesses all the qualifications and credentials to become the President of India. And so the AIADMK takes pride in supporting him’. Almost immediately, Patnaik said the same thing to the scribes in Bhubaneswar.

Ms Jayalalithaa followed this up by speaking to friends in the BJP and the national party heeded her advice. It meant that the ‘regional’ leader was able to hoist her candidate in the Presidential poll and conduct a credible national campaign for him. This was warmly acknowledged by Sangma when he came a second time to Chennai on poll eve.

“I came here to thank Jayalalithaa for giving full support to me. She not only backed me but also mobilised support for me from other parties. This is great strength to me”, he told reporters after meeting the AIADMK supremo.

Compare this clout of Jayalalithaa with the weakening muscle of both the national parties. The BJP could have propped up a candidate for Presidency just as it nominated Jaswant Singh as its Vice-President choice. But it chose to follow the AIADMK leader possibly in the hope of getting her as ally during the 2014 Lok Sabha poll.

And the Congress suffered embarrassment in the manner in which its TMC ally Mamata Banerjee treated Pranab Mukherjee — when she finally decided to vote for him two days before the poll, she said that was because it would go against democracy to waste the vote. And earlier, Didi had suggested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as Rashtrapati.

True, Jayalalithaa’s allies, the MMK led by M H Jawahirullah, PT of Dr K Krishnasamy (two MLAs each) and AIFB (one MLA) voted for Pranab but then, their decision is unlikely to hurt her politics in any significant way. Also, the MMK and the PT leaders said she did not bother to speak to them whereas Pranab phoned them.