Majority of Sena MPs back Droupadi Murmu for presidential polls

A majority of the 18 Shiv Sena MPs on Monday (July 11) expressed their support for Droupadi Murmu as the choice for the next presidential elections, to be held on July 18.

Sixteen of the 18 Lok Sabha MPs of the party from Maharashtra attended the meeting — 13 of them physically at Matoshree, the residence of former chief minister and Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, and three of them, Sanjay Jadhav, Sanjay Mandlik and Hemant Patil, virtually.

Two Lok Sabha MPs of the Sena — Bhavana Gawali and Shrikant Shinde (son of Chief minister Eknath Shinde) — did not attend the meeting, party leader Gajanan Kiritkar said.

Droupadi Murmu is the candidate of the BJP-led NDA alliance and her rival is Yashwant Sinha, who has been chosen by opposition parties.

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The support for Murmu exposes potential differences within the party which had just recently been rocked by the rebellion led by now-Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who took out over 40 of its MLAs in the Maharashtra Assembly and formed the government with the support of the BJP.

This had forced the dislodging of Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray from the chief minister’s post which was formed after the 2019 Assembly elections with the support from NCP and Congress.

Under Thackeray, the Sena has been seen siding with the opposition, and was likely to have supported its candidate, Yashwant Sinha.

However, at Monday’s meeting, most of the MPs were seen backing Murmu, the NDA candidate.

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Kirtikar, who is also an MP, told NDTV that the MPs, all Thackeray loyalists, wanted to vote for Murmu as she “is a tribal woman” and Maharashtra has a significant chunk of tribals in its population.

Uddhav Thackeray has not yet spoken about his choice for the presidential elections, but according to reports, his second-in-command, Sanjay Raut is said to have been against NDA’s choice and wants MP’s to vote for Yashwant Sinha.

The rift in the Sena could give Murmu an edge over Sinha in the July 18 polls.

Besides the 18 Lok Sabha members in Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena also has its MP, Kalaben Delkar, in the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. It also has three MPs in the Rajya Sabha.

(With Agency Inputs)