Draupadi Murmu seeks support from Sonia, Pawar and Mamata

New Delhi, June 24:  The NDA's presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu spoke to Congress interim national president Sonia Gandhi, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, and sought their support.

According to sources, before filing her nomination, Murmu spoke to Sonia Gandhi, Sharad Pawar and Mamata Banerjee besides leaders of several opposition parties and sought their support.

However, the Congress, NCP and Trinamool Congress, along with other opposition parties have already announced Yashwant Sinha as their joint candidate for the Presidential election. Sinha is also preparing to file his nomination on June 27.

Draupadi Murmu filed her nomination on Friday in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior BJP and alliance leaders. By showing its strength during the nomination, the BJP has proved that it has the numbers to make their candidate the President. In spite of this, the BJP has tried to send a bigger political message by seeking support from the leaders of major opposition parties.

Union Ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Pralhad Joshi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jairam Thakur, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, besides the Chief Ministers of other BJP-ruled states, many ministers of the Modi cabinet, MPs and BJP veterans were present during Murmu's nomination at Parliament House.

Apart from JD(U) National President Rajiv Ranjan Singh and Apna Dal's Anupriya Patel, leaders of NDA constituents were also present during the filing of her nomination papers. Leaders of the Biju Janata Dal and YSR Congress, who had announced their support to Murmu, were also present.

The last date for filing nominations is June 29. Polling will be held on July 18 and the counting of votes will take place on July 21.