A day after 16 party MPs suggested to support NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu in in Presidential elections, party chief and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had on Tuesday announced to support her.
Mumbai: A day after Shiv Sena supremo and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray officially announced his party’s support to NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu in Presidential elections, leaders of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has slammed the party.
Senior leader from Maharashtra Congress, Balasaheb Thorat ctiticised the move saying the support of candidate should be based on ideology not on woman identity and tribal background. In a series of tweets, the Congress leader raised serious concern over the entire development. The leader suggested to favour all-united opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha instead of Murmu as she has different ideology.
Also Read: Shiv Sena will support NDA pick Droupadi Murmu for President, says Uddhav Thackeray
Balasaheb Thorat, in a tweet, said, “The presidential election is an ideological battle. It is an ongoing struggle for democracy and the defense of the Constitution. This is not a battle between women, men or tribals, non-tribals. All those who are in favor of the protection of the Constitution and democracy are supporting Yashwant Sinha.”
He further tweeted, “Why did Shiv Sena support Draupadi Murmu? He also gave some reasons for that, but only the Shiv Sena leadership can tell what his real role behind it is, what can we say about it?”
Thorat, in another tweet, wrote, “Shiv Sena is a different political party, so they can play their role. However, the role played by Shiv Sena in this ideological battle when the state government was overthrown by adopting non-democratic path and the existence of Shiv Sena was challenged is incomprehensible.”
The Congress leader, in his concluding tweet, said, “Shiv Sena Mahavikas is in the lead, but they have not discussed anything with us while taking this decision.”
A day after 16 party MPs suggested to support NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu in in Presidential elections, party chief and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had on Tuesday announced to support her.
Thackeray had said that several tribal leaders from the party had said that this is the first ever occasion when a tribal women is fighting for President post and has chance to get elected. He said that no party MP pressurised him to favour Murmu during Monday’s meeting.
Also Read: 16 Shiv Sena MPs ask Uddhav Thackeray to support NDA’s President candidate
The Shiv Sena supremo had said that considering the current political scenario, Shiv Sena should not back her but he and his party men are not narrow minded.
ON Monday, 16 MPs from Shiv Sena had asked their party chief to support NDA’s Droupadi Murmu for the top post of country. The MPs, who attended a meeting called by the former Maharashtra Chief Minister in Mumbai, had said that Murmu is a tribal woman candidate hence the party should vote in her favour in the election. The party has a total of 22 MPs in both the hosues out of which 19 are from Lok Sabha and three are from Rajya Sabha.
As per the report, 16 MPs were wished to support the NDA candidate because of Murmu’s tribal identity who is a woman candidate also. Maharashtra, from where these MPs come, has a good chunk of tribal people and they have base in several districts.
