Naveen Patnaik and PA Sangma

Bhubaneswar, May 22: The reluctance of their national chief, Sharad Pawar, notwithstanding state leaders of the Nationalist Congress Party appear keen on backing former Lok Sabha Speaker and senior party leader P.A. Sangma in the race to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Three NCP MLAs, led by state legislature party leader Amar Prasad Satpathy today met Pawar in Delhi to plead Sangma’s case with him even as the strongman from Meghalaya had an early morning tete-a-tete with chief minister Naveen Patnaik in the national capital.

While Sangma, who met Naveen at the latter’s Aurangzeb Road residence, thanked him for his support, the chief minister reiterated that the tribal leader was the right candidate to occupy the highest office of the country.

Sources said Odisha NCP MLAs, who met Pawar in Delhi, included Nabin Nanda and Ramchandra Hansda, apart from Satpathy, who has been most vocal in his support for Sangma. Some other office-bearers of the party from the state were also present during the deliberations.

Satpathy said the state leaders told Pawar that the former Lok Sabha Speaker was the fittest person to occupy the President’s chair and hence the party must back him. The state leaders are also believed to have conveyed to Pawar, who has not taken kindly to Sangma’s campaign, their compulsions in the context of Odisha politics.

The party, which contested the 2009 Assembly elections in tandem with the BJD, continues to be an ally of the state’s ruling party and would like to back its choice in the presidential elections as well. State unit of the NCP had endorsed Sangma’s choice within hours of Naveen’s announcement of support to the tribal leader from Meghalaya on May 17.

Sources said that even though Pawar refused to be persuaded by the Odisha NCP MLAs during the meeting today and wound up the discussion saying that the issue was still wide open, the state party leaders were unlikely to change their stance.

“We have always gone with the BJD in the state, be it the Rajya Sabha elections or some other issue. The fact is we are not comfortable with the Congress,” said former minister and senior NCP leader Prashant Nanda.

Stating that the central leadership of the NCP had always given the state unit leeway in such matters, Nanda hoped that Pawar would understand the compulsions of the party in Odisha and let its leaders take their own decisions.