Sanjay Raut On Shiv Sena’s Decision To Support Draupadi Murmu In The Presidential Election
Mumbai, 12th July 2022: Shiv Sena has announced to support NDA candidate Draupadi Murmu in the presidential election. The senior party leader Sanjay Raut said that it does not mean supporting the BJP.
He said, “We are supporting Draupadi Murmu as she is a big tribal leader. Apart from this, this decision has also been taken keeping in mind the public sentiment.”
Talking to the media, Sanjay Raut said that Shiv Sena is supporting Draupadi Murmu because public sentiment is with her. Along with this, Sanjay Raut wished goodwill upon the joint opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha. When the meeting was held regarding the candidate of the opposition, Shiv Sena also participated in it. But now their stand is like a blow to the opposition unity as well.
Raut said that Uddhav Thackeray said in the meeting of MPs held yesterday that there are different opinions regarding the presidential election in the country, but Draupadi Murmu is the first tribal candidate of the country.
Shiv Sena has already voted separately from the alliance. Raut said that it is important to consider what public sentiment is. This is not the first time that Shiv Sena has supported a candidate outside its alliance. Earlier in 2007, Shiv Sena had supported UPA candidate Pratibha Patil while in NDA. Then they supported Pratibha Patil as she was a great Marathi leader. After this, in 2012, they supported Pranab Mukherjee. Now that Shiv Sena is in alliance with Congress in Maharashtra, they have announced their support for the NDA candidate.
It raises questions like whether Shiv Sena has changed its stand under the pressure of MPs. Uddhav Thackeray had called a meeting of MPs yesterday. In the meeting, out of 19 Lok Sabha MPs, only 12 had arrived and the other 7 were missing. Not only this, the MPs involved in the meeting had also put pressure on Thackeray that the party should support Draupadi Murmu.
Now it is clear from Sanjay Raut’s statement that Shiv Sena has to change its stance to save the party. Significantly, 40 out of 55 MLAs of the party have gone with Eknath Shinde. Apart from this, a large number of MPs are also being said to be in support of Eknath Shinde.
