Amit Shah in Mumbai, Uddhav Thackeray wants Swaminathan as President

MUMBAI: On a day when BJP president Amit Shah began his three-day Mumbai visit, Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray recommended agriculture scientist MS Swaminathan’s name for the post of President of India. Shah is scheduled to meet Tackeray at latter’s residence ‘Matoshree’ in suburban Bandra on Sunday.

Thackeray on Friday said: “Sena is clear on its stand, we would like RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat to be the President. If someone has an issue with him, then Swaminathan should be the President.”

The Sena chief said Swaminathan was being chosen for the work he had done for farmers. “If farmers need to have an option other than suicide, then Swaminathan should be made the President as he can help farmers,”said Thackeray.

Farmers across the country are demanding that state governments should implement the recommendations made by the Swaminathan committee. The panel had suggested that farmers be given higher MSP.

While claiming that Sena would like to hear the names from Shah, Thackeray said his personal view was that the “presidential elections should be held unopposed”.

BJP leaders in Maharashtra believe Sena is deliberately muddying the waters and a few leaders believe that the Sena is not likely to support the BJP’s candidate for the post.

During the 2007 polls, Sena had backed UPA’s Pratibha Patil instead of BJP’s Bhairon Singh Shekawat. Again in 2012, it did not abide by the NDA decision to support PA Sangma and supported UPA’s Pranab Mukherjee.