BJD extends support to NDA's Presidential nominee Droupadi Murmu

BJD’s support makes it easier for Murmu, the party has as many as 31,000 votes, or a 2.85% share in the electoral college

Several parties including the Janata Dal (United), Odisha’s ruling party Biju Janata Dal, Hindustani Awam Morcha and Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas faction (LJP) have extended their support to the NDA’s presidential nominee Droupadi Murmu.

Taking to twitter, BJD supremo and Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik asked all the legislators in Odisha to vote for Murmu. “Appeal all the members of Odisha Legislative Assembly, cutting across party lines, to extend unanimous support to elect the daughter of #Odisha - Smt #DraupadiMurmu to the country’s highest office,” Patnaik tweeted.

On Tuesday night, hours after she was named as the NDA candidate, Patnaik said it was a great honour for Odisha, as she will be the first person from the state to occupy the country’s highest office, if she wins.

Also Read | Who is Droupadi Murmu? NDA's Presidential candidate

“I was delighted when Hon’ble PM @narendramodi ji discussed this with me. It is indeed a proud moment for people of #Odisha,” Patnaik tweeted.

Murmu has served office with Patnaik earlier; she has been elected legislator two times from the Bharatiya Janata Party in Odisha during the BJD-BJP coalition government, and has been cabinet minister between 2000 and 2004. Despite BJP’s waning popularity in the state thereafter, Murmu managed to win.

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar in a statement expressed his support for her candidacy. “Many thanks to the Prime Minister for choosing a tribal woman who has proven her mettle as a minister in Odisha and during her gubernatorial stint in Jharkhand,” Kumar said.

BJD is one of the few parties which is neither in the UPA, nor in the NDA. It walked out of the NDA in 2009, but has a working relationship with the BJP. While BJD has as many as 31,000 votes, or a 2.85% share in the electoral college, JD(U) had 45 MLAs and 16 MPs in Lok Sabha and 5MPs in Rajya Sabha. The BJP currently has 49% share in the college, and it needs to cross the halfway mark of 50% to win.

In addition, former Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manhi also extended his support of his party Hindustani Awam Morch to Murmu’s candidacy, even though he has been upset with the BJP. His party has 2 MLAs in the Bihar assembly. “It is a great moment for us that a second leader from among us is going to become the President,” Manjhi tweeted.

Paswan also tweeted his support. “It would be for the first time that a tribal leader becomes President of India. LJP (Ram Vilas) gives full support to BJP's decision," he tweeted. Paswan is the lone MP of the Ram Vilas faction, and holds 700 votes.

The BJP is hoping for support from parties like the YSR Congress and JMM to sail through, and had entrusted president JP Nadda and defence minister Rajnath Singh to build a consensus across all parties, including UPA, NDA allies, and non-UPA non-NDA parties. Singh had earlier reached out to Opposition leaders including Congress’s Mallikarjun Kharge, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, and Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray.

Among NDA allies, the party had reached out to YSR Congress leader YS Jagan Reddy and Nitish Kumar. The Opposition parties did not agree to a consensus since the BJP had not yet named a candidate. Just hours before Nadda announced Murmu’s name, the Opposition parties put forward the candidature of Yashwant Sinha, who resigned from the Trinamool Congress.