PM Modi’s Murmu play upsets NCP-Sena applecart

Mumbai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nomination of former Governor of Jharkhand, Droupadi Murmu, to the post of India’s next president has compelled former ally-turned-foe Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray’s faction) to go along with the Bharatiya Janata Party. This has upset the political applecart of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar in Maharashtra.

While the united opposition comprising 17 political parties had backed the candidature of former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha as their nominee for the presidential elections slated for July 18, Murmu’s candidature took the wind out of their sails. Even Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Bannerjee was forced to backtrack, was the first to state that she would have positively considered the BJP nominee, had the party announced Murmu’s candidature earlier.

According to a BJP source, “Modi was always considering a woman to head the Indian Republic and finalized the nomination of Murmu. Turn to P5

She is a tribal leader who completed her five-year tenure as Governor of Jharkhand. The PM kept in mind caste dynamics to ensure that the last denominator in the Indian polity was given representation at the topmost post.”

First India had reported on these aspects in its June 16, 2022 issue and reported that the next BJP presidential nominee would be a hardcore BJP politician with a polite personality. Criteria such as clean image, intelligence quotient, caste analysis along with sheer dedication to the BJP ideology were to be the qualifying aspects of the nominee. Droupadi Murmu has fulfilled all these criteria.

More importantly, Modi has also dealt a severe blow to the opposition formations particularly, NCP supremo Pawar, who was a signatory to Sinha’s candidature. After the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction of the Shiv Sena announced that it would back Murmu’s candidature, it has raised questions about the future of the MVA alliance—comprising NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena—in Maharashtra.

Thackeray felt politically compelled to back the BJP nominee after a majority of Sena MPs urged their chief to support Murmu.

On the other hand, Pawar, who is believed to have recently taunted Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a personal meeting asking the latter whether he sought to continue his political career even after two consecutive terms as PM of India, may now be considering the prudence of his statements considering, the political repercussions his party has faced since then.