Ranchi: NDA’s Presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu is likely to witness a massive lead from Jharkhand as 60 MLAs belonging to the NDA including those from the ruling JMM have voted in its favour while UPA-backed nominee Yashwant Sinha got 20 votes including those of the Congress RJD and CPIML.
There was talk about Congress tribal legislators defying party lines. When asked regarding this, a section of tribal legislators led by Finance Minister Rameshwar Oraon denied the fact. He said that he was here as a congress legislator while other tribal legislators of the party including Rajesh Kachhap, Shilpi Neha Tirkey, Naman Vixel Kongari besides others echoed him.
Congress executive president Bandhu Tirkey commenting on the issue said that all such talks are baseless. JMM is a separate party. We do not have to say anything on that party’s stand on support for the NDA presidential candidate,” said Rameshwar Oraon whether it was not defiance of the UPA unit that JMM supported Murmu.
Congress state president Rajesh Thakur echoed the same. He said that this is an election for a post of sanctity. It is not contested based on religion and caste. Thakur said that the party will congratulate whoever emerges victorious. However, he said that he does not have anything to say on the issue of JMM supporting Murmu.
Congress legislator Anup Singh said he is not against Murmu but against the party that fielded Murmu. He said that it is a clash of ideology and nothing else. For Shilpi Tirkey it was a unique experience. After she returned from exercising her franchise she said that she fortunate to have voted for the election of president hardly 15 days after she was administered oath as a legislator.
For CPI-ML Binod Singh voting in the polls was not about a person but rather it was supporting an ideology. However, it remained a catch-22 situation for the senior legislator of the Jharkhand assembly Saryu Rai who was the last to exercise his franchise at Jharkhand Vidhan Sabha. He said that both candidates, Draupadi Murmu and Yashwant Sinha are close to him. Thus it remained a tough task for him to choose one of them, he said.
When asked who did he choose, he laughed saying that he was not supposed to divulge this as there is the provision of a secret ballot. He, however, hinted that he voted to keep the present political scenario and requirement of stability of the union government on the issue of a unit of the integrity of the country in mind.
JMM legislators voted for Murmu and expressed their full solidarity with her. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done the right thing by allowing tribal women to reach the top position of the country said Sita Soren who is Jama MLA and elder daughter-in-law of JMM Chief Shibu Soren. She also appreciates Baba (Shibu Soren) for his decision to support a tribal woman.