Droupadi Murmu, NDA’s Presidential pick, seeks support from Sonia, Mamata & Pawar

New Delhi: Droupadi Murmu, the presidential nominee of BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Friday called up key leaders of the Opposition including Congress president Sonia Gandhi, NCP chief Sharad Pawar & West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and sought their support for her candidature.

Reports said that Droupadi Murmu called the opposition leaders personally before filing her nomination for the July 18 Presidential election. All the three leaders extended their best wishes to BJP’s Presidential pick, said sources.

Droupadi Murmu filed her nomination papers for the President post today, amid presence of BJP’s tallest leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Top ministers of the government including Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari and BJP president JP Nadda accompanied her on way to filing papers.

#WATCH NDA’s Presidential election candidate Droupadi Murmu files her nomination in the presence of PM Modi, Union cabinet ministers & CMs of BJP & NDA ruled states pic.twitter.com/PkZDXeL3L1

— ANI (@ANI) June 24, 2022

Murmu is the first woman tribal leader to file nomination for the top constitutional post of the country. Coming from a very humble background, she has worked through the ranks and seen many adversities in life. She has also been a Governor of Jharkhand and a former Odisha minister.

Meanwhile, the Opposition candidate for Presidential election is Yashwant Sinha who will file his nomination on June 27. The rivals settled on his name at the joint Opposition meet apparently after 3 other leaders backed out of race. His name was unanimously finalized by political parties including the Congress & TMC.

Presidential Election 2022

The term of current President Ram Nath Kovind is set to end on July 24 and election to fill this vacancy will take place on July 18. Electoral college consisting of elected MPs, MLAs and other members will elect the new President, through a secret ballot. However, its only the elected members who are eligible to vote for electing new President, nomination members aren’t eligible to vote.

Polling to elect new President will happen on July 18 and counting of votes will take place on July 21.