Lal Thanhawla Redicules H T Sangliana

Aizawl, Jun 18 : As Sonia Gandhi has made it clear that Pranab Mukherjee is the UPA candidate for the Presidential race, chief minister Lal Thanhawla has ridiculed the "self-projection" of H T Sangliana in the race to Raisina Hills.

"It is a shame for the person who has been claimed to be Sonia Gandhi's favourite for the presidential elections. If not self-projection what else could it be," Lal Thanhawla said on Saturday.

Affirming that there has been a loud voice for electing a tribal christian to the Rashtrapati Bhavan in which seasoned politician from the Northeast P A Sangma emerged as a nominee, Lal Thanhawla said that there was no mention of the name of H T Sangliana.

"I have never known anyone canvassing himself for the President post," Lal Thanhawla said. A few weeks back, a local weekly magazine reported that the top cop-turned-politician was favoured by Sonia Gandhi for the President post.

This report was carried by a couple of English online news services in the Northeast, which further made it to one of the leading English dailies in the region.

However, not a single paper in Mizoram published the report. Sangliana, who had been elected to the Lok Sabha from Bangalore North after he retired as DGP of Karnataka, once said that he was proposed by Sonia Gandhi to head the Mizoram Pradesh Congress Committee which however did not go down well with Congress leaders here.

Sangliana, a native of Mizoram, is current vice-chairman of National Commission for Minorities, an appointment after he joined the Congress party.