NDA nominee for Presidential polls Droupadi Murmu files nomination
PM Modi was the first proposer, senior Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, and BJP president JP Nadda were among the other signatories on the nomination papers
National Democratic Alliance’s Presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu filed her nomination on Friday amid a major show of support in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah, several BJP chief ministers, leaders of all NDA constituents and other supporters such as the Biju Janata Dal, YSRCP and AIADMK. The BJD, YSRCP and AIDMK have pledged support for Murmu.
Earlier in the day, Murmu, the first person from the Scheduled Tribe set likely to become the President of India, dialled top leaders of 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 Opposition sponsored Yashwant Sinha.
According to Opposition functionaries, all three leaders wished Murmu good luck. “It was a courtesy call,” a senior Congress leader said. The key Opposition leaders, however, don’t see the possibility of any Opposition party formally declaring support for Murmu. They also didn’t rule out the possibilities of many individual lawmakers of their camp supporting Murmu.
PM Modi was the first proposer, senior Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, and BJP president JP Nadda were among the other signatories on the nomination papers. According to officials, a total of 4 sets of nominations 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, Pushkar Singh Dhami were also present.
With AIADMK, BJD and YSRCP announcing their support in favour of Murmu, she now enjoys 6,09,587 votes out of 10,86,431 votes of the electoral college for Presidential polls.
Before filing her nomination, Murmu paid floral tribute at the statues of Mahatma Gandhi, Bhimrao Ambedkar and Birsa Munda in the Parliament complex.
During her nomination, AIADMK leaders O Paneerselvam and P Ravindranath, YSRCP leader V Vijayasai Reddy and BJD sent two of its state ministers of Odisha, Tukuni Sahu and Jagannath Sarka who signed the nomination form for Murmu. Apart from that at least 12 MLAs of BJD also signed Murmu’s nomination form.
Murmu, who hails from Odisha, was the Governor of Jharkhand between 2015 and 2021.
