Behind Jayalalithaa's move to back Sangma as President

By almost unilaterally announcing her party's support for the candidature of former Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma for the President's post, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary J Jayalalithaa has queered the pitch and made it that much more difficult the search for a common opposition candidate.

In a statement on Thursday, Jayalalithaa said that she took the decision after consulting her colleagues and Biju Janata Dal chief Navin Patnaik.

Now the Bharatiya Janata Party has to go along with her choice or force a multi-cornered contest, something that has never happened.

The Left parties too will have to either back Sangma or go the Congress way.

In her statement, the Tamil Nadu chief minister said that Sangma met her on May 15 and sought her support.

She has said 'India has never had a President from a tribal community'.

"Sangma not only belongs to a tribal community but is also eminently qualified to be the President," she said.

The decision, which shows a new regional grouping, follows a recent meeting Patnaik had with Jayalalithaa in Chennai.

Jayalalithaa is equally close to Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar. However, as he is now part of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance ruling coalition, she has chosen not to consult him though he is the first to state his stand that the next President should be a politician -- an implied opposition to fielding Vice President Hameed Ansari. 

Pawar and Sangma broke away from the Congress and formed the Nationalist Congress Party in opposition to Sonia, a foreigner, aspiring for prime ministership. While Pawar has made peace with the Congress, Sangma has not publicly reconciled from his position.

By rushing to back Sangma, Jayalalithaa is testing her influence in national politics as she has developed prime ministerial ambitions.

Reportedly, as per her calculations, 2014 will throw up another hung Parliament like the one in 1996 which led to post-election grouping of United Front assuming office with the support of the Congress on the one side and the BJP on the other. 

With the assertion that in the next parliamentary election any leader with the support of 40 MPs will decide the next government, Jayalalithaa believes that her party could repeat its success in the assembly election by making a clean sweep of all 40 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry in 2014