BHUBANESWAR: Central minister and NCP leader Agatha Sangma on Saturday held a closed door talks with chief minister Naveen Patnaik, triggering speculation about the forthcoming presidential polls in July. Naveen had propped up former Lok Sabha speaker P A Sangma (Agatha's father) as a possible candidate in May.
The chief minister, however, said the possible successor to President Pratibha Patil did not figure in his luncheon meeting with the Union minister of state for rural development at his residence Naveen Niwas. "We were not discussing the Rashtrapati Bhavan election really," he said, adding the talks focused on rural development issues concerning Odisha.
Describing her meeting with Naveen as a "courtesy call", Agatha said she was on a two-day visit to Odisha to attend a function celebrating the birth anniversary of former chief minister Nandini Satpathy here and also interact with some women self-help groups in Konark on livelihood issues.
The meeting came days after all four NCP legislators in the state merged with BJD, upsetting the NCP central leadership.
Sources said Agatha was tightlipped in public about the possible candidature of her father for the President's post because NCP chief Sharad Pawar is not in favour of Sangma contesting the polls. While Naveen and his Tamil Nadu counterpart J Jayalalithaa are backing Sangma on the ground that he is a tribal, Pawar and Co have decided to go with the Congress-led UPA's decision on who should contest the presidential election. "As Agatha is a NCP representative in the Union ministry, she is keeping mum on the issue in public," a source in the know explained.
Agatha had called on Naveen on April 1, but termed it a "courtesy call". But on May 17, Naveen proposed that P A Sangma enter the fray for the President's job.
The chief minister, however, said the possible successor to President Pratibha Patil did not figure in his luncheon meeting with the Union minister of state for rural development at his residence Naveen Niwas. "We were not discussing the Rashtrapati Bhavan election really," he said, adding the talks focused on rural development issues concerning Odisha.
Describing her meeting with Naveen as a "courtesy call", Agatha said she was on a two-day visit to Odisha to attend a function celebrating the birth anniversary of former chief minister Nandini Satpathy here and also interact with some women self-help groups in Konark on livelihood issues.
The meeting came days after all four NCP legislators in the state merged with BJD, upsetting the NCP central leadership.
Sources said Agatha was tightlipped in public about the possible candidature of her father for the President's post because NCP chief Sharad Pawar is not in favour of Sangma contesting the polls. While Naveen and his Tamil Nadu counterpart J Jayalalithaa are backing Sangma on the ground that he is a tribal, Pawar and Co have decided to go with the Congress-led UPA's decision on who should contest the presidential election. "As Agatha is a NCP representative in the Union ministry, she is keeping mum on the issue in public," a source in the know explained.
Agatha had called on Naveen on April 1, but termed it a "courtesy call". But on May 17, Naveen proposed that P A Sangma enter the fray for the President's job.
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