CHENNAI: Just days after gaining the upper hand in the coming Presidential polls by becoming the first to announce an official candidate for the election, Chief Minister and AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa on Sunday spoke to leaders from across the political spectrum to support Nationalist Congress Party leader P A Sangma for the Presidency.
Jayalalithaa had announced she was throwing her weight behind Sangama, even as her Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik had done so from Bhubaneshwar on Thursday. On Sunday, Jayalalithaa spoke over the telephone with leaders Left and Right, from BJP patriarch LK Advani and Shiromani Akali Dal chief and Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal to CPM general secretary Prakash Karat and CPI general secretary A B Bardhan.
Jayalalithaa also reached out to a range of regional leaders, including Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.
A press release from the AIADMK office said Jayalalithaa had appealed to these leaders to announce their support for Sangma, who had earlier served as Lok Sabha Speaker. She also appealed on the grounds that India so far has not had a President from a tribal community.