Murmu could’ve been consensus choice: Didi
HT Correspondent
KOLKATA: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said she could have considered supporting Droupadi Murmu, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)’S nominee for the presidential election, had the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) consulted her over nomination.
Former Jharkhand governor Murmu, who filed her nomination for the July 18 presidential election on Friday, is set for a comfortable victory to become the first Adivasi (tribal) and the second woman to occupy the post of President. Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha is the Opposition nominee.
“The BJP’S presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu has better chances because of Maharashtra development. If the BJP had asked for our suggestion before announcing the name, we could have considered it, too, bearing greater interests in mind,” Banerjee told reporters.
“Had we known that they were
planning to field a tribal woman, a member of a minority community, we could have thought about it [a consensus]. We have great respect for people from the tribal community and for women. We have 16-17 parties in our alliance. I cannot back out unilaterally,” she added.
The President is elected through a process of proportional representation in which MLAS and MPS (except nominated ones) vote. With the Shiromani Akali Dal, BJD and YSRCP announcing support in favour of Murmu, she now enjoys 606,490 votes of the 1,086,431 votes of the electoral college. If the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv
Sena fact backs the NDA nominee, then she will have 6,825 more votes.
Reacting to Banerjee’s comments, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said, “It was Didi [Banerjee] who tried to thrust her decision on others. If she has taken a U-turn, she received a call from the BJP.”
BJP leader Dilip Ghosh said, “She made the remarks because she knows that defeat is inevitable. Banerjee has been looking only for publicity.” CPI (M) leader Sujan Chakraborty said nobody asked Banerjee to bring all parties under one umbrella on the issue.