NDA presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu to visit Tripura, Bihar on July 5

Droupadi Murmu will meet NDA lawmakers in Bihar around 10 am before leaving for Tripura

Droupadi Murmu, Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA's Presidential candidate, is scheduled to visit Bihar and Tripura on Tuesday to garner support for her candidature.

She will meet NDA lawmakers in Patna at around 10 am and then fly to Agartala in Tripura, said Bihar minister Jibesh Kumar Mishra, who also issued an "appeal to Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav and his Left allies" to support Murmu in the polls scheduled for July 18.

In Tripura, the ruling BJP has 36 MLAs while its ally, the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura, has a strength of seven legislators. Meanwhile in Bihar, Yadav's RJD and allies CPI(ML), CPI and CPI(M), which together have 96 MLAs in the 243-strong assembly, besides a few members in the Rajya Sabha, have already decided to support Opposition's joint nominee Yashwant Sinha, Murmu's principal rival.

"We are taking all measures to conduct the election smoothly. A team of the Parliament Secretariat is scheduled to reach by July 16 or 17 to supervise the election process," said Tripura  Assembly Speaker Ratan Chakraborty.

On Monday, Murmu visited Ranchi and sought the support of ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, a tribal party, besides BJP legislators and parliamentarians in the state for her election to the country's topmost office.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren extended a warm welcome to Murmu, who is a former governor of the state, on her arrival. She was accompanied by union ministers Arjun Munda, Annapurna Devi and Arjun Meghwal, besides BJP state president Deepak Prakash, JMM said in a statement.

Murmu and Soren are both tribal leaders and belong to the Santhal ethnic group, which has a sizeable population in Jharkhand as well as in Odisha, from where she hails.

Murmu and Sinha are the only two left in the race for the president's office after the last day for the withdrawal of nomination ended on Saturday.