The nomination of Droupadi Murmu as the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) presidential candidate may have triggered some sort of split in the Odisha Congress with a veteran party leader on Saturday announcing that he will urge party chief Sonia Gandhi to support Murmu and withdraw the candidature of joint Opposition nominee Yashwant Sinha.
Former minister and Congress MLA Suresh Routray said he will urge Sonia Gandhi to support Murmu as she is a tribal and hails from Odisha.
“As an Odia, I am happy for Murmu. She is an Odia tribal woman and has worked as MLA, minister and the governor of Jharkhand where she showed her caliber. I recently met her at the Odisha Bhawan and congratulated her. We (UPA) should withdraw our candidature (of Yashwant Sinha),” said Routray.
He said he will follow the party high command’s order but added that if there are no whips then the Congress MLAs will vote as per their conscience.
Routray’s statement came two days after Congress Legislative Party leader Narasingha Mishra said the party will not support Murmu as she is a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate.
“No matter how good or well-behaved a person is and what he achieves, the Congress will never support the person who believes in the ideology of RSS or BJP. Even though she is a good politician and a good human being, she believes in the BJP ideology. So, the Congress will never support her. People of this ideology killed Mahatma Gandhi and we will never support such people,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}“No matter how good or well-behaved a person is and what he achieves, the Congress will never support the person who believes in the ideology of RSS or BJP. Even though she is a good politician and a good human being, she believes in the BJP ideology. So, the Congress will never support her. People of this ideology killed Mahatma Gandhi and we will never support such people,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Two days ago, chief minister Naveen Patnaik urged all MLAs of the state to support Murmu calling her “daughter of the state”. In the 147-member state assembly, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has 112 MLAs while the BJP has 22. The Congress has 9 MLAs, two of whom are tribals.
However, a former Congress MLA from Koraput conceded that Murmu’s candidature has put the party in a fix. “Though we would like to tell everyone that we support the party candidate, how can we oppose a tribal woman in a state where our fortunes are on a steady decline. We hope the party reconsiders its decision on Yashwant Sinha,” said the former Congress MLA.
Political analysts said Routray’s statement showed the confusion in the party.
“The Congress was in power in Odisha with the support of tribal votes. The local leaders must be in a quandary on voting against Murmu as it would make them look like anti-tribal. Though the party leaders would like to claim that they would toe the party line, many may cross-vote as it’s a secret ballot,” said Satya Prakash Dash, a political science professor in Sambalpur.