A new era was ushered in the country when India in the 75th year of Independence elected a tribal woman, the first in the history to the highest office. Former Jharkhand Governor Smt Droupadi Muru recorded a handsome victory in the Presidential election, the votes which were counted today to be the 15th President of the largest democracy in the world.
Right from the day she was picked up by the BJP led NDA for the top office, her victory was a foregone conclusion and during the vote count, she received a clear margin of win over her only rival former Union Finance and External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha. Sinha was a joint Opposition candidate and was supported by Congress, NCP, leftists, DMK and other parties.
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Monday 10 Feb. 2025
Murmu was fortunate to get unexpected support from Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) of Jharkhand state where she served as Governor where Chief Minister Shibu Soren though who is not part of NDA decided to extend her support. Similarly Shiv Sena which had post poll alliance with Congress and NCP and was in power in Maharashtra with Uddhav Thackeray as Chief Minister till recenntly also switched over to support her.
Initially Shiv Sena led by Thackeray supported Sinha and even sent one of their representative Industry Minister Subhash Desai to attend first meeting convened by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Their Rajya Sabha MP and party spokesman Sanjay Raut was also present when Sinha filed the papers but subsequently, Rahul Shewale, MP wrote a letter to Thackeray asking him to support Murmu.
Thackeray was under tremendous pressure as 12 out of 19 MPs were in favour of voting for Murmu and he succumbed to the pressure announcing that Sena will vote for Murmu, being a tribal woman. The Congress and NCP were left with red face.
NCP supremo Sharad Pawar who took pains in mustering support for Sinha was shocked to know Sena stand but nevertheless, Opposition went ahead with their campaign. The role of Banerjee was also in doubt. After wrestling initiative for holding first meeting of joint opposition to pick up candidate where name of Pawar cropped up and he himself declined.
In the second round of talks, name of former J & K Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and former West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi came up but during the course of discussions, both opted out citing some reasons.The ultimate choice was Yashwant Sinha.
Banerjee when heard name of Murmu quietly distanced herself from Sinha campaign and was reported saying she didn’t knew Murmu was being fileded by NDA, thereby clearly indicating she would have favoured her candidature.
Another surprise today by Banerjee is that during the Vie-Presidential poll, as predicted in this column only yesterday, Banerjee has decided to remain
absent during voting,thereby indirectly helping NDA nominee, former Governor of her state, Jagdeep Dhankar.
…Joseph Rao- Senior Journalist
