Mumbai: Opposition candidates for next week’s presidential election, Yashwant SinhaThe Shiv Sena has canceled its Mumbai tour scheduled for Saturday in view of the announcement of support for National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate Draupadi Murmu. An NCP leader said, “Sinha’s visit to Mumbai, where he was supposed to meet and address the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) MLAs, has been cancelled.”
Presidential Election 2022: Why Yashwant Sinha Canceled Maharashtra Visit?
He said the yatra has been canceled as Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray has announced his party’s support to Murmu. On Tuesday, Thackeray had announced that his party would support Murmu, saying this is the first time a tribal woman is getting a chance to become the president. He had said that several leaders of the party, especially from the tribal community such as MLC Amshya Padvi, former MLA Nirmala Gavit and Shivajirao Dhawale of Eklavya Sangathan, had urged him to support Murmu, though there was no pressure on him.
Shiv Sena has 19 MPs in the Lok Sabha, of which 18 are from Maharashtra. It has three MPs in the Rajya Sabha, 55 MLAs, although 40 of them have sided with the faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
Shiv Sena led the MVA government which also included the NCP and Congress. However, it collapsed after Shinde’s rebellion on 29 June. The Congress has 44 MLAs and one Lok Sabha and three Rajya Sabha members, while the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has 53 MLAs, 4 Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members.
Voting will be held on 18 July to elect the next President. The race for Rashtrapati Bhavan will be between Murmu and Sinha.
Murmu’s vote share has already crossed 60 per cent after getting support from some regional parties like BJD, YSR-CP, BSP, AIADMK, TDP, JDS, Shiromani Akali Dal and Shiv Sena. It was around 50 percent at the time of his enrollment. Murmu had visited Mumbai on Thursday as part of his election campaign, and met BJP MLAs and MPs from Maharashtra as well as legislators of his allies, including the Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction.
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