Prez polls: Sena seeks names of candidates
BJP’s biggest ally, Shiv Sena, on Sunday refused to give blanket support to the ruling party on the Presidential election but like other Opposition parties sought to know the name of candidates.
Sena, with around 23,000 votes, had earlier proposed RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and eminent agri-scientist MS Swaminathan’s name for the country’s top post.
BJP chief Amit Shah met Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray at the latter’s residence in Mumbai. Shah, according to reports, told Thackeray that nearly all NDA partners have pledged support for the candidate which the Prime Minister will decide.
Sources told HT that before PM leaves for his foreign tour on June 24, the NDA will announce its candidate and again reach out to Opposition parties for support. The government managers had reached out to the Opposition parties but none of them assured support as no specific names were proposed from the ruling dispensation.
Meanwhile, in Delhi, union minister Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday met his cabinet colleague, food minister Ram Vilas Paswan and secured his support for the NDA candidate. “The decision will be taken soon and the name of the Presidential candidate will be announced before June 23,” Naidu said after meeting Paswan.
“Paswan went to London for treatment, and we all were waiting for him to come back. Now, he is absolutely fine. I have informed him about everything happening in the connection wuth the elections. He told me that his stand is clear and whatever the Prime Minister decides will be acceptable to us,” Naidu added.
AIADMK leader M Thambidurai announced that his party “will meet soon and announce support to the Presidential candidate. We are friendly with the Centre, but not in alliance with anyone.” The Centre is banking heavily on AIADMK, which had 59,000 votes in the electoral college.