Hope Pranab's nomination gets rejected: Sangma

P A Sangma, former speaker and a candidate for the President's post, on Monday expressed hope that the Election Commission was aware of the fact that United Progressive Alliance's candidate Pranab Mukherjee held an office of profit while filing his nomination for the post.

Speaking to rediff.com while attending the wedding reception of Bharatiya Janata Party chief Nitin Gadkari's son in New Delhi, he expressed hope that when the scrutiny of papers takes place on Tuesday, Mukherjee's nomination gets rejected as he still held the post of the chairman of the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata.

"I am hopeful of the rejection of my opponent's nomination," Sangma said.

At the reception, he was accompanied by his daughter Agatha Sangma, who is a leader of the Nationalist Congress Party and a minister in the UPA government.

Sangma, a founder-member of the NCP, resigned from the party after it refused to back his candidature. The BJP has expressed its support for Sangma.

Senior BJP leader L K Advani, who shared the table with Sangma and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, did not agree with Sangma.

"I know for sure that the UPA would be able to manage it (the issue) and Pranab will stay in the fray," Advani told rediff.com.

The reception was attended by a large number of political leaders, though former President A P J Abdul Kalam stole the limelight with his appearance. Senior Congress leaders A K Antony and Sushil Kumar Shinde, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Lord Meghnad Desai attended the reception.

Media personnel, who wanted to discuss the ongoing crisis in the BJP government in Karnataka with Gadkari, were in for a disappointment because the BJP chief kept away and attended to his guests.