Shiv Sena, led by Uddhav Thackeray, has decided to support NDA’s presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu. Party leader Sanjay Raut said today that the party has taken the decision to support Draupadi Murmu but that does not mean they are backing the Bharatiya Janata Party. He said today, “Shiv Sena has decided to support Murmu for the presidential election but this does not mean we are supporting BJP.”
This announcement comes a day after Uddhav Thakeray held a meeting with the party MPs at his residence in Mumbai. According to sources, the majority of the members urged Thakeray to support the NDA candidate in order to make up with the BJP and Eknath Shinde faction. In all, 16 MPs were of the opinion that Shiv Sena should support NDA’s nomination. It is believed that Thakeray has been forced to back Murmu’s nomination in order to avoid splitting the party MPs, following the massive fallout with Shinde faction.
However, party leader Gajanan Kirtikar had said earlier that although Murmu is the NDA candidate, the party’s decision to support her is because she is an important woman representative of the tribal community. “She is an NDA candidate but Draupadi Murmu belongs to the tribal community and is a woman. We should give her our support – this was the demand by all MPs. Uddhav ji told us that he will tell us his decision in a day or two,”
