Patna/Bhubaneswar: The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha and the Janata Dal United (JD-U) in Bihar pledged support to the National Democratic Alliance’s Presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu on Wednesday. Aside from Chief Minister of Odisha Naveen Patnaik and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Jitan Ram Manjhi and Chirag Paswan supported the candidature of Murmu.
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Selection of Murmu as a candidate for the President’s post is a pleasing thing, said Kumar. Earlier in the day, JD-U’s national President Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh officially announced support to Murmu.
JD-U Parliamentary Board President Upendra Kushwaha also congratulated Murmu, and appealed to the opposition parties to support tribal leaders of the country. Patnaik appealed to all MLAs in the state to support Murmu. Patnaik, in Rome now, has made this appeal on Twitter. On Tuesday, Patnaik revealed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had discussed Murmu’s candidature with him. In the 147-seat Odisha Assembly, the BJD has 114 members (including one expelled member), BJP 22, Congress nine, CPI-M one and there is one Independent too. Patnaik’s BJD had supported NDA candidates in the previous two presidential elections (2012, 2017).
