Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena has given in and will vote for Droupadi Murmu in the presidential polls, according to sources. Already the party has been weakened since Eknath Shinde, with the support of BJP, resigned as Chief Minister for Maharashtra.
Today, 16 of the 22 members of the party told Thackeray they would support Murmu “because she’s a woman from a tribal village”. If elected — which is all but done as the NDA has the numbers — she’ll be the first tribal woman to be President of India. That’s a factor in Maharashtra, where nearly 10 per cent of the population is of Scheduled Tribes.
Team Thackeray’s Sanjay Raut had said yesterday that supporting Ms Murmu would “not mean supporting BJP”.
During Sena mutiny in December, Mr Shinde’s faction demanded Uddhav Thackeray leave Congress and NCP. They wanted to ally themselves with BJP. However, Thackeray refused the request and was forced to resign as a result of majority support from his MLAs for Mr Shinde.