Maharashtra: Shiv Sena MPs want to support NDA candidate for presidential polls

Shiv Sena MP Gajanan Kirtikar leaves after a meeting of MPs with Uddhav Thackeray on Monday. Pic/Satej Shinde

Shiv Sena Members of Parliament have asked their party chief, Uddhav Thackeray, to support the NDA candidate for the presidential polls slated for July 18. A strong demand to this effect was made at an MPs' meeting with the former CM on Monday.

According to Mumbai MP Gajanan Kirtikar, the group made such a demand because of Droupadi Murmu's credentials. He said only two MPs, Bhavna Gawali and Shrikant Shinde (CM Eknath Shinde's son), did not attend the meeting. Earlier, two MPs, Rahul Shewale and Rajendra Gavit had written letters to Thackeray with a similar demand.

Now in an intense rivalry with the BJP, which has toppled its government, the Sena leadership faces a rare situation in which its public representatives have raised an uncomfortable demand. Kirtikar said Thackeray would declare the party's stand. BJP's nominee Murmu is expected to travel to Mumbai this week for canvassing.

The meeting was also crucial against the backdrop of speculations that the Lok Sabha MPs were also distancing from the leadership, and might form a separate group in the house, as the Eknath Shinde group has done in the state Assembly.

However, extending support to Murmu would not be politically difficult for the Sena, because it had voted for the candidates of non-BJP parties in the presidential elections even after being part of the NDA.

It was also learnt that the MPs wanted to know the party's strategy for getting them reelected while fighting alone in the next Lok Sabha polls, because the Sena has won its seats and increased the strength whenever it was in alliance with the BJP.