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Ruling coalition NDA’s Presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu, who is in a comfortable position to win the July 18 election to succeed Ram Nath Kovind in the Rashtrapati Bhavan, filed her nomination papers on Friday in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and top BJP leaders.
With arithmetic in the Presidential electoral college favouring her, Murmu spoke to Opposition leaders, including Congress President Sonia Gandhi, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and NCP chief Sharad Pawar, seeking support to her candidature. According to the sources, none of them made a commitment to Murmu but wished her all the best for the election.
Former Jharkhand Governor Murmu filed her nomination papers in the presence of Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP president J P Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah, chief ministers of all BJP-ruled states, Meghalaya CM Conrad Sangma, Nagaland CM Neiphiu Rio as well as two ministers of the Biju Janata Dal government. Members of other BJP allies, including Anupriya Patel of Apna Dal, Rajiv Ranjan Singh of Janata Dal (U), YSRCP’s Vijay Sai Reddy, and AIADMK leaders Thambidurai and O Panneerselvam were also present.
The nomination papers were submitted with secretary general of the Rajya Sabha P C Modi, who is acting as the Returning Officer as per the notification by the Election Commission of India. Murmu will be contesting the election against former finance minister Yashwant Sinha, whose name was proposed by a grouping of the Opposition.
Prime Minister Modi was the first proposer in the Murmu’s nomination papers. Four sets of nomination papers were filed by Murmu which carried signatures of chief ministers, MPs and MLAs. In the second set, the chief ministers of BJP-ruled states were the proposers, the third set had MLAs and MPs from Himachal and Haryana as proposers, while MLAs and MPs from Gujarat were the proposers in the fourth set.
Murmu is expected to get the support of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), a prominent Opposition party that draws its support from Santhal tribal community, to which Murmu belongs to. BJP sources said they expect parties like Shiromani Akali Dal, Bahujan Samaj Party and Telugu Desam Party to back her candidature.
The 64-year-old leader will now embark on a nationwide campaign to generate support. The BJP has already appointed a 14-member team led by Union Minister Gajendra Shekhawat to coordinate the electioneering process for the July 18 Presidential election, the result of which will be out on July 21.
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