Sanjay Raut, a Shiv Sena member, said on Sunday that the party would back Margaret Alva, the opposition’s vice presidential candidate.
According to him, Sena would endorse Droupadi Murmu in the presidential election out of “sentiment” since Ms. Murmu is a tribal woman, and Maharashtra is primarily tribal.
As he spoke with ANI, Mr. Raut stated, “The lady Droupadi Murmu is from a tribal community. The majority of Maharashtra is tribal. Numerous indigenous members make up our legislature. Murmu is feeling something.
Our party officials also have feelings towards Droupadi Murmu, which is why the president of Shiv Sena has said that Shiv Sena would endorse Margaret Alva as its vice presidential candidate. At the same time, Shiv Sena will back Murmu as a candidate.”
A conference of the opposition parties was convened earlier to choose the opposition’s vice presidential candidate after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chose West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar as its candidate.
Mamata Banerjee, the head of the Trinamool Congress party, and representatives from the Aam Aadmi Party skipped the meeting.
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At a meeting held at Mr. Pawar’s home, the leaders of 17 opposition parties, including the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Telangana Rashtriya Samithi, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Shiv Sena, Congress, and Indian Union Muslim League, decided to nominate Margaret Alva as their candidate for vice president.
Although Mata Banerjee could not attend the meeting because she was preoccupied with an on-board appointment, Mr. Pawar said they had spoken earlier in the day.
Malikarjun Kharge, the leader of the Congress, stated: “Today the opposition candidates have been chosen, but Mamata Banerjee is engaged in a meeting and as a result, the negotiations have not taken place, although Sharad Pawar is in contact with Mamataji.”
Ram Gopal Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, Sitaram Yechury of the CPI(M), and K.K. of the TRS were present during Sharad Pawar’s home meeting. Attending the meeting were Keshava Rao, Sanjay Raut from the Shiv Sena, Jairam Ramesh, and Malikarjun Kharge from the Congress, and Vaiko from the MDMK, TR Balu from the DMK, and Trichysiva from the VCK.
The conference also included Thirumavalavan and Ravi Kumar, D Raja and Binoy Biswam from the CPI, Jose K Mani from the Kerala Congress(M), and Farooq Abdullah from the National Conference.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) President Sharad Pawar named Margaret Alva as a vice presidential candidate earlier on Sunday.
While the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) declared on Saturday that West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar would be their candidate for the vice presidential race.
The deadline for submitting nominations for the vice presidential election is July 19.
