Presidential poll: NDA fields Droupadi Murmu, tribal leader from Odisha; Opposition picks Yashwant Sinha

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 21

The ruling BJP today fielded former Governor of Jharkhand Droupadi Murmu (64) to take on the joint Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha (84) in the July 18 presidential election.

Murmu, once elected, will be India’s first tribal President and the second-ever woman to hold the highest office after Pratibha Patil.

Editorial: Presidential battle: NDA’s Murmu pitted against Oppn candidate Sinha

Announcing Murmu’s name, BJP chief JP Nadda said the party’s parliamentary board chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi deliberated on 20 names, but decided to field a tribal leader from east India, preferably a woman. The BJP said Murmu symbolised “sabka saath, sabka vishwas” and rose from humble beginnings in a tribal household to the office of the Governor. Nadda lauded Murmu’s early days as a teacher in Odisha, how she later became a councillor, two-term MLA and eventually the first woman Governor of Jharkhand in 2015.

With Murmu’s nomination, the BJP appears to have comfortably bridged the marginal gap that is left for it to cross the 50 per cent mark in the electoral college for the President’s election. Murmu’s candidature will get BJD chief and Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik’s support, helping the NDA, currently around 49 per cent in the electoral college, cross the halfway mark. Importantly, Murmu was a minister in the Naveen Patnaik cabinet when the BJD ruled Odisha with the BJP support. In 2013 she became national executive member of BJP’s ST Morcha. An arts graduate from a Bhubaneshwar college, Murmu has spent decades in social service and public life.

With her nomination, the BJP has signalled a massive tribal push ahead of Gujarat and Himachal elections later this year. Earlier today, 13 Opposition parties chose Sinha as presidential candidate after NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi and National Conference patron Farooq Abdullah opted out of the race.

Sinha’s nomination was backed by the Congress, NCP, TMC, CPM, CPI, RSP, SP, NC, AIMIM, RJD, CPIML, AIUDF and the DMK.

Pawar also claimed support of AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal, Telangana CM and TRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav saying “he had personally spoken to them”.

The TRS and AAP were, however, absent from today’s meeting, as were the BJD, YSRCP and the BSP. The AIMIM was a new invitee to the non-BJP camp meeting.

An Opposition statement on Sinha said having been an able administrator, MP and minister, he was “eminently eligible to uphold the secular and democratic character of the Indian Republic”.

“We appeal to all parties to support Yashwant Sinha so that the nation can have a worthy president elected unopposed,” Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said.

Prez candidates

• Murmu, once elected, will be India’s first tribal President and the second-ever woman to hold the highest office
• Appointed first woman Guv of J’khand in 2015, she was first to complete 5-year term in state
• Sinha, IAS officer-turned-politician, quit BJP in 2018 to join TMC

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