Uddhav-led Sena camp to back Murmu in prez poll
The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena will extend its support to Droupadi Murmu, the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) candidate, for the Presidential election.
The decision was announced by Thackeray a day after a meeting of the party was held in Mumbai where most of the MPs suggested supporting Murmu for the top constitutional post.
Thirteen of the 18 Lok Sabha MPs of the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra had Monday physically attended the key meeting.
Thackeray said the decision was taken independently and not under any pressure.
“I am not under pressure from anyone to support Murmu. We have taken decisions on presidential candidates independently in the past too,” he said.
“Some tribal leaders, including our legislators, from the community met me and requested to support Murmu,” the Sena supremo added.
“Actually, going by the present political atmosphere, I
should not have backed her. But we are not narrow minded,” he said.
After Thackeray called a meeting in Mumbai on July 11 for presidential elections, party leader Sanjay Raut on Tuesday confirmed that there were discussions about NDA’s presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu at the meeting and said that supporting Murmu does not mean supporting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“We discussed Droupadi Murmu (NDA’s Presidential candidate) in our meeting yesterday. Supporting Droupadi Murmu does not mean supporting BJP. Shiv Sena’s role will be clear in a day or two; party chief Uddhav Thackeray will make a decision,” Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut.
He also highlighted that the party had goodwill toward the opposition’s Presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha.
“The opposition should remain alive. We also have goodwill towards the Opposition’s Presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha. Earlier we supported Pratibha Patil and not the NDA candidate. We supported Pranab Mukherjee also. Shiv Sena does not take decisions under pressure,” he added.