Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray is likely to support the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu after a demand from majority of Sena MPs.
As many as 16 Shiv Sena Members of Parliament (MP), who attended a meeting called by Thackeray in Mumbai on July 11, insisted that the party should support NDA candidate Murmu, instead of Opposition’s Yashwant Sinha in the presidential elections scheduled on July 18, according to reports.
“Draupadi Murmu is a tribal woman and that's why we should vote for her. This was the demand by all MPs. Uddhav ji will tell us his decision in a day or two," Shiv Sena MP Gajanan Kirtikar said after the meeting.
Reports said that 13 of the 18 Lok Sabha MPs of the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra attended the key meeting on the presidential elections in which a majority of them suggested supporting the BJP-led NDA's pick for the top constitutional post.
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However, Sanjay Raut, one of the three Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MPs, strongly supported Yashwant Sinha during the meeting, according to the sources.
“We had supported Pratibha Patil, a UPA candidate, as she’s a Marathi woman. We had supported Pranab Mukherjee, a UPA candidate. We should see beyond politics for Presidential election," Kirtikar said.
A shift in Shiv Sena votes will not alter the outcome of the Presidential polls since NDA has a numerical advantage after the support its candidate received from Biju Janata Dal and other regional parties. However, Thackeray's decision to back Murmu would be a setback for the Opposition front that has fielded Yashwant Sinha as its candidate for the top constitutional post.
Also, read : Choosing Draupadi Murmu as its presidential candidate is a masterstroke by the BJP
Thackeray was chief minister of the MVA alliance government comprising the Shiv Sena, the Congress and the NCP. His government, however, crashed last month after the rebellion by Eknath Shinde, who is now the chief minister of Maharashtra.
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