Presidential candidate P.A. Sangma on Saturday launched his campaign here by making an appeal to members of the electoral college to exercise their conscience vote cutting across party lines.
Expressing his gratitude to former chief minister and AGP president Prafulla Kumar Mahanta for supporting his candidature, Mr Sangma also reiterated that the presidential election is not held on party symbol, so calculating the vote of the electoral college on the basis of strength of a political party was not right.
Clarifying that now Mr Pranab Mukharjee cannot be identified as the candidate of the Congress party in the presidential election, Mr Sangma said, “That is why we resigned from our respective parties before filing our nomination.”
Referring to Article 85 of the Indian Constitution which says that voting for the presidential election will be held through secret ballot, Mr Sangma said that even the party whip is not applied in a presidential election, so members of the electoral college are free to vote to a candidate of their choice.
Asserting that he would be victorious in this election too, Mr Sangma, however, said, “I also believe in miracles and God, which can do anything.”
Claiming overwhelming support of political leaders of the Northeast, Mr Sangma said that he was meeting leaders of Bodoland Peoples Front and many other political parties of Meghalaya, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh to seek their vote.
Acknowledging the support of the Mizo National Front, Mr Sangma also raked up issue of “foreign origin”. “My view that leaders of foreign origin should not be the Prime Minister of India is still the same,” he said.
He took a dig at the role of present and past Presidents. “I am of the view that the President cannot be a silent spectator to the prevailing chaos.”