Bhubhaneswar/Chennai, May 17
Injecting a new element in the Presidential race, regional parties BJD and AIADMK were today first off the bloc when they announced their joint support for former Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma but his own party NCP distanced itself from his moves.

Chief Ministers of Odisha and Tamil Nadu, Naveen Patnaik and Jayalalithaa, who have lately come together on issues of federalism and met last week in Chennai, announced their support to the 65-year-old tribal leader from north-east.

"I think Mr Sangma ought to be candidate for the highest post for the Rashtrapati Bhavan," he told reporters in Bhubhaneswar, adding he has had discussions with Jayalalithaa on the issue.

Shortly later, the AIAIDMK chief issued a statement in Chennai saying her party has decided to support the candidature of Sangma for the highest office after "due consideration".

Recalling Sangma's May 15 meeting with her, Jayalalithaa said he "not only belongs to a tribal community but is also eminently qualified to be the President of our great nation."

Sangma, who has been campaigning for a tribal President, thanked the two parties for the decision but NCP chief Sharad Pawar pleaded ignorance about the development.

"I am not aware of any such development. Sangma has not spoken to us. We have had no discussions. We feel that with such a limited strength, we cannot aspire for such a major post," Pawar told PTI.

Sangma himself said he was not lobbying as an NCP leader but in his personal capacity.

This is the first announcement by any political parties to back a particular candidate for the Presidential polls scheduled in July. There has been raging speculation that Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee may be elevated as President by Congress though it has not officially declared its stand.

The BJP has also yet to take a stand though its leader Sushma Swaraj had said it would oppose a Congress candidate.

Parties like Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party, JD(U), BSP and Left parties are also playing a wait and watch game while informally some of them have indicated they have no objection to either Mukherjee or Vice President Hamid Ansari if Congress chooses to pick one of them.

When asked whether he will support any other tribal candidate, Sangma said he was not the only tribal who could be president. "Any one tribal. It can be (Tribal Affairs Minister) Kishore Chandra Deo, Arvind Netam (Congress), Kariya Munda (BJP)...it has to be a tribal this time."

Sangma, however, said Mukherjee, who is considered a front-runner for the ruling UPA's candidature, is "very highly qualified" for the post but said there are other qualified people and insisted that President this time should be from among tribals.

"I am very happy about it and I am extremely grateful to both the leaders (BJD's Naveen Patnaik and AIADMK's Jayalalithaa). They have been very responsive to our (tribals) aspirations. So on behalf of tribals in India, which is more than 100 million, I would convey my sincere thanks to them," he said.

He also appealed to other parties to follow suit and support the tribal cause.

In this case, he said, he was not representing NCP but the whole tribals.

"In our group there are MPs and MLAs and former MPs from all parties...I have spoken to Kishore Chandra Deo and he has said we should fight for our cause, why not? So we are all one. There is nothing like A, B or C political party," he said.

"We belong to different political parties but we belong to tribal community. We are representing tribal community," he said.