Mumbai: Sixteen out of a total of 18 Lok Sabha MPs from Shiv Sena in Maharashtra on Monday attended a crucial meeting on the upcoming presidential election 2022 and most of them suggested supporting BJP-led NDA candidate Draupadi Murmu. This was confirmed by news agency ANI quoting Shiv Sena leader Gajanan Kiritkar. Shiv Kirtikar said that most of the party MPs agree that Draupadi Murmu is a tribal woman and hence they should vote for her.
She is an NDA candidate but Draupadi Murmu belongs to the tribal community and is a woman. We should extend our support to them – this was the demand of all MPs (of the party). Uddhav ji told us that he will tell us his decision in a day or two: Gajanan Kirtikar, Shiv Sena MP pic.twitter.com/PRpEAE2HkJ— ANI (@ANI) 11 July 2022
“We supported UPA candidate Pratibha Patil because she is a Marathi woman. We supported UPA candidate Pranab Mukherjee. Uddhav ji will announce support to her (Draupadi Murmu) because she is a tribal woman. Must look beyond the presidential election,” Kirtikar told ANI.
He said out of 18 MPs, two were absent- Bhavna Gawli and Shrikant Shinde. All other party MPs were present in the meeting. Kiritkar said 13 MPs were present at the meeting, while three others – Sanjay Jadhav, Sanjay Mandlik and Hemant Patil – could not attend the meeting but confirmed their support to the leadership.
Kirtikar reportedly said, “Most of the MPs were of the opinion that the party should support Draupadi Murmu.” He said that two Shiv Sena Lok Sabha MPs Bhavna Gawli and Shrikant Shinde (son of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde) did not attend the meeting.
Of the 18 MPs, two remained absent – Bhawna Gawli and Shrikant Shinde. All other party MPs were present in the meeting: Gajanan Kirtikar, Shiv Sena MP pic.twitter.com/8lpvYVQWWA
— ANI (@ANI) 11 July 2022
However, party MP and chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut claimed that only 15 out of 18 Lok Sabha MPs attended the meeting held at Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s private residence Matoshree in suburban Bandra. He did not give details.
Apart from 18 Lok Sabha members in Maharashtra, the Union Territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu also have Shiv Sena MP Kalaben Delkar.
A change in a few votes of Shiv Sena may not make much difference in the outcome of the presidential election, with the support of Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal and Nitish Kumar’s Rashtriya Janata Dal showing a numerical advantage to the government.
Presidential elections will be held on 18 July. NDA candidate Murmu is pitted against opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha.