E-Paper
Murmu files papers, calls up Opposition leaders for support
According to Opposition functionaries, all three leaders wished Murmu good luck. “It was a courtesy call,” a senior Congress leader said.
The National Democratic Alliance’s candidate for President, Droupadi Murmu, filed her nomination papers on Friday amid a major show of support in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, several BJP chief ministers, leaders of all NDA constituents and outside supporters such as Biju Janata Dal, YSRCP and AIADMK. BJD. YSRCP and AIDMK have pledged support for Murmu.
Earlier in the day, Murmu, the first person from the scheduled tribes set to become the President of India, dialled top leaders from the Opposition camp — Congress president Sonia Gandhi, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee — seeking their support for her candidature against the Opposition-backed Yashwant Sinha.
According to Opposition functionaries, all three leaders wished Murmu good luck. “It was a courtesy call,” a senior Congress leader said. While the key Opposition leaders don’t see a possibility of any Opposition party formally declaring support for Murmu, they don’t rule out the possibilities of many individual lawmakers of their camp supporting her.
PM Modi was the first proposer while senior ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, and BJP president JP Nadda were among the other signatories on the nomination papers, according to officials, as a total four sets of nomination papers were filed supporting Murmu’s candidature. In the first set, the PM was the proposer and defence minister Rajnath Singh was the approver.
Several chief ministers of BJP-ruled states including Yogi Adityanath, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Manohar Lal Khattar, Jairam Thakur, and Pushkar Singh Dhami were also present.
With AIADMK, BJD and YSRCP announcing their support in favour of Murmu, she now enjoys 609,587 of the 108,6431 votes of the electoral college for the Presidential election.
Before filing her nomination, Murmu paid floral tributes at the statues of Mahatma Gandhi, Bhimrao Ambedkar and Birsa Munda in the Parliament complex.
Murmu, who hails from Odisha, was the governor of Jharkhand between 2015 and 2021.
While the JMM is supporting Yashwant Sinha, HT reported on Wednesday that party leaders indicated that they were open to backing Murmu as she is a tribal leader and enjoys a good equation with the Sorens.
