Mumbai: As the Presidential elections approach, Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday announced that the Shiv Sena led by him will support Droupadi Murmu.
The decision to support the BJP-led NDA’s candidate came a day after 16 of the party’s 22 MPs told Thackeray to support her. The MPs asked him for support because “she is a woman from a tribal community”.
As per reports, if Murmu wins the election, she will be the first tribal woman to be President of India.
This is said to be a factor for Maharashtra as 10 per cent of the population is of Scheduled Tribes.
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However, the Thackeray-led faction clarified that supporting Murmu would “not mean supporting BJP”.
It may be mentioned that Uddhav Thackeray had to resign from the Chief Minister’s seat last month after a week-long high-political instability and “mutiny” by Eknath Shinde’s faction.
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Shinde’s group had been demanding Uddhav Thackeray ditch the Congress and NCP, to get back with “natural ally” BJP.
However, as Thackeray refused to do so, he had to resign as the majority of the MLAs supported Shinde.