Presidential poll: Droupadi Murmu meets BJP lawmakers from Bengal, assured of support

NDA presidential nominee Droupadi Murmu met BJP lawmakers from West Bengal on Tuesday to seek their support for the July 18 election. BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar and Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the opposition in the West Bengal assembly, along with central leaders of the party were present at the hour-long meeting held at a hotel.

According to sources of the state BJP unit, the party lawmakers assured her of the support in the poll.

Murmu is visiting various states to garner support from lawmakers.


Earlier in the day, she visited the ancestral house of Swami Vivekananda in north Kolkata.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had recently said that Murmu, a tribal BJP leader from Odisha, could have been a consensus candidate had the saffron camp discussed with the opposition parties before fielding her.

Major non-BJP parties of the country, including the Congress and the TMC, have named former union minister Yashwant Sinha as the joint nominee for the presidential election.

The BJP presently has 17 Lok Sabha MPs from West Bengal. Of them, Arjun Singh has switched over to the TMC but is yet to resign as a parliamentarian.

In the 294-member West Bengal assembly, the saffron camp has 75 MLAs. However, five of them have joined the TMC without resigning as legislators.