Presidential Election: Draupadi Murmu called up Jharkhand CM to seek support for her candidature, say sources

Continuing to reach out to opposition leaders, NDA presidential nominee Draupadi Murmu on Saturday called up JMM supremo and Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren seeking his support for her candidature, sources said. They said Murmu called Soren personally and sought support for her candidature.

Murmu had also called Congress president Sonia Gandhi, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, and TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee before filing her nomination for the July 18 presidential election.

All three leaders had expressed their best wishes to her, sources said.


Meanwhile, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), essentially a tribal party, called a meeting of its MPs and MLAs on Saturday to discuss the upcoming presidential election.

JMM is a constituent of Congress-led UPA alliance and is in power in Jharkhand in alliance with it.

Murmu had filed her nomination on Friday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi handing over her papers to Returning Officer P C Mody.

She was accompanied by a host of Union ministers, including Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, and BJP president J P Nadda.

Several chief ministers of BJP-ruled states, including Yogi Adityanath, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Manohar Lal Khattar, Jairam Thakur, Pushkar Singh Dhami, and leaders of some NDA supporting parties like YSRCP, BJD, and AIADMK were also present during her nomination filing.