Draupadi Murmu meets Shiv Sena legislators, but not Uddhav Thackrey

Mumbai, July 15: The NDA presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu did not meet Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray during her visit to Mumbai although he had extended his support to her, two days ago.

Thackeray and 16 MPs were not invited to the NDA event, attended by her, a report on NDTV claims.

Two days ago, Thackeray announced support for Murmu's candidature for the July 18 presidential election after breaking ranks with his Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance partners, namely, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress.

However, Sena MP Sanjay Raut downplayed the incident saying that Shiv Sena is not part of the NDA. "So there was no question of their being invited" for an NDA function, he said.

The Sena, which had earlier extended support to opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha, decided to support her as party legislators who belong to tribal communities were strongly in favour of backing her, Raut added.

While the Sena denied that Thackeray decided to back Murmu due to any pressure or political calculations, political observers feel that by doing so, he was keeping the door open for reconciliation with the rebel MLAs led by Eknath Shinde, and eventually the BJP, its former ally.

Shinde became Maharashtra's Chief Minister with the support of the BJP last month after toppling the MVA government led by Thackeray. There has been a split in the Shiv Sena parliamentary party as well with half a dozen Lok Sabha MPs including Bhavana Gavali abandoning the Thackeray-led faction.

The Sena's decision to back Murmu (instead of the Opposition's candidate Yashwant Sinha) did not go down well with Congress which said Thackeray did not discuss the issue with his allies.

Notably, the Sena had broken ranks with the BJP-led NDA to support Congress leaders Pratibha Patil and Pranab Mukherjee in earlier presidential elections.