Banerjee said that she would now extend her support to Opposition nominee Yashwant Sinha for the top post.
New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee on Friday said that she would have supported National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate Droupadi Murmu for the presidential elections had the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would have consulted her on the same.
“If the BJP had informed us and discussed that they were backing a tribal lady as the presidential candidate then we would have supported her,” she said, adding Murmu’s chances are better in the race to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Banerjee said that she would now extend her support to Opposition nominee Yashwant Sinha for the top post.
“But now I will have to do what the entire Opposition decides to do,” she added.
The TMC chief further said she wants the presidential election to be held with peace
The Opposition has fielded Sinha, a former bureaucrat and a union minister during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, as its candidate in the presidential election. Sinha had quit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2018 and joined the TMC earlier in March last year.
The presidential election will be on July 18 and the results will be declared three days later on July 21, the Election Commission (EC) announced last month.
President Ram Nath Kovind’s term ends on July 24.
According to the Constitution, a new President has to be appointed before his term ends.
The President is elected by an electoral college comprising 776 members of the Parliament and 4,033 members of the legislative assemblies.
The nominated MPs and members of the legislative council are not allowed to vote.
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