President poll: Naveen Patnaik leaves for Delhi to back PA Sangma

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik left for New Delhi from Bhubaneswar on Wednesday to be present while former Lok Sabha speaker P A Sangma filed his nomination for the presidential election on Thursday, an official said.

Patnaik, who is also the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) chief, was the first to announce Sangma's name for the president's post.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders were among the others who announced their support for Sangma.

Patnaik, who is also the Biju Janata Dal chief, was the first to announce Sangma\'s name for the president\'s post.

"The chief minister is expected to return on Saturday or Sunday," an official of Patnaik's office said.

"Sangma is filing his nomination on Thursday. Patnaik will accompany him," the official said.

Patnaik left for New Delhi a day after Sangma's son Conrad Sangma met him in Bhubaneswar at Naveen Nivas, the chief minister's official residence.

Conrad Sangma later told reporters that about 100 BJD legislators and parliamentarians, from the Odisha assembly, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, had signed a paper expressing their support for Sangma.

While 50 members, including the chief minister, have signed as proposers, others put their signatures as seconders, he said.

The BJD has 108 members in the state's 147-member assembly, 14 members in the Lok Sabha and seven in the Rajya Sabha.

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