Support Murmu for President: Tribal Shiv Sena MP says in letter to Uddhav

Rajendra Gavit, the Shiv Sena MP from Maharashtra's Palghar Lok Sabha seat, has asked party chief Uddhav Thackeray to support the candidature of Draupadi Murmu in the July 18 Presidential election.

While Gavit, who belongs to a tribal community, is the second Sena MP to suggest that the party back Murmu, candidate of the BJP-led NDA, the Uddhav Thackeray-led party has not yet declared its stand.

The rebel Sena faction led by Eknath Shinde, now Maharashtra Chief Minister, has decided to support Murmu, according to sources. In a letter written to Thackeray on Thursday, Gavit said it would be an honour if a tribal person became the President of India. In past elections, Sena founder Bal Thackeray had broken ranks with the NDA and supported the candidatures of Pratibha Patil and Pranab Mukherjee (both Congress leaders), Gavit pointed out.

Thackeray-led Shiv Sena left the NDA in 2019 as the party formed government with the Congress and NCP in Maharashtra after ditching the old ally BJP. Earlier this week, the Sena's MP from Mumbai South Central seat, Rahul Shewale, had written to Thackeray and sought that the party back Murmu.