Prez polls: Draupadi Murmu to reach Patna on Tuesday to seek Bihar lawmakers' support

NDA presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu will arrive here on Tuesday to seek the support of MPs and MLAs of Bihar for the upcoming polls to elect the first person of the country, a senior BJP leader said here on Monday. Jibesh Kumar Mishra, who is also a state minister, told reporters that Murmu will arrive at 10 AM and leave for her next destination by 1.30 PM.

Murmu, who will become the first Adivasi woman to occupy the country's top constitutional post if she wins the presidential elections, will kick off her tour by garlanding a statue of legendary tribal leader Birsa Munda.

She would thereafter meet NDA lawmakers at a hotel in the city before boarding her flight, said Mishra who also issued an "appeal to Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav and his Left allies" to support Murmu in the polls scheduled for July 18.


Notably, Yadav's RJD and allies CPI(ML), CPI and CPI(M), which together have 96 MLAs in the 243-strong assembly, besides a few members in the Rajya Sabha from Bihar, have already decided to support Yashwant Sinha, Murmu's principal rival.

"I can sense that RJD and Left MLAs want to support Murmu. Their leadership should heed the sentiment and avail of the historic opportunity to help a tribal woman reach the top," said Mishra.

BJP sources said that Murmu might try and fit into her tight schedule a meeting with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the de facto leader of JD(U).

JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan, who is also the party's leader in the Lok Sabha, was among those present beside Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief J P Nadda when Murmu filed her nomination papers last week.