NCP will take action if Sangma contests Presidential poll

The NCP on Saturday indicated that it would take action against PA Sangma if he persisted with his proposal to contest the Presidential election.

The NCP on Saturday indicated that it would take action against PA Sangma if he persisted with his proposal to contest the Presidential election.

"We will react if he pursues with his candidature", senior NCP leader and Union minister Praful Patel told PTI when asked what action was being contemplated by the party against the former Lok Sabha speaker.

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Maintaining that the party's line was to support UPA's nominee Pranab Mukherjee for the top constitutional post "unconditionally", Patel said, "the NCP's stated position is that we do not subscribe to his (Sangma's) candidature. We will react only if he files his nomination".

"Let me make it very clear that Mr Sangma does not enjoy support of the NCP. We wish that he does not contest...I don't think he should defy the party's direction or the line of thinking", Patel said.

"In this case, the party's direction and the line is to support Pranab Mukherjee unconditionally", he said.

Sangma is insisting on contesting, saying that he has the support of AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa and BJD chief Naveen Patnaik. "I am in the fray as a tribal candidate, not as an NCP candidate", he had said earlier.