Decks cleared for Sangma’s re-election

NEW DELHI, March 22: The chances of P A Sangma emerging as the consensus choice for Speaker brightened today with the Bharatiya Janata Party...

NEW DELHI, March 22: The chances of P A Sangma emerging as the consensus choice for Speaker brightened today with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) indicating that it was not keen on the post going to its own partyman.

Party President and Home Minister L K Advani told a television channel that “we are not keen upon having our own man as Speaker,” and expected that the situation would become clear by Monday when Parliament meets for the first session of the new government.

The BJP chief is also said to have called on Leader of the Opposition Sharad Pawar today but the details of their meeting were not known.

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Advani’s statement came on a day when the United Front (UF) decided to back Sangma’s candidature. After a meeting of the UF core committee, spokesman S Jaipal Reddy said that informal talks on the issue were on between the UF and the Congress. However, he did not announce the name of the candidate saying that it would be done tomorrow.

There was no representative from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP)at the meeting but party chief and UF convenor N Chandrababu Naidu said in Hyderabad that a consensus candidate, even if it was someone from the Congress, would not pose problems.

Asked why Naidu had not attended the meeting, Reddy said UF chairman H D Deve Gowda had telephoned the TDP leader who informed him that deliberations with party MPs on the Speaker issue were still going on.

In his television interview, Advani said that the BJP had discussed some names for the Speaker with its allies but no agreement could be reached. Asked if the BJP would support Sangma, Advani said that he was not aware of any Congress-UF agreement but went on to “greatly appreciate” Sangma’s position on the issue.