Kolkata: There are murmurs in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that there will be a division in the opposition votes in the ensuing Presidential election to be held on July 18. An MP of the Trinamool Congress Saugata Roy said on Friday that his party would vote for the opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha. Roy said that the party had received a letter from the West Bengal unit of the BJP, seeking the TMC’s support for the National Democratic Alliance’s candidate Draupadi Murmu.
Murmu who visited Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh for electioneering on Friday is set to visit Kolkata on Saturday to meet BJP’s MPs and legislators. Roy said, “We have received a letter signed by BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar and Leader of the opposition in West Bengal assembly Suvendu Adhikari, urging us (TMC MPs) to support NDA nominee Murmu for presidential polls. They have claimed that Murmu’s victory is certain, and we all should vote for her to strengthen democratic and constitutional norms,” Roy said. He ruled out any possibility of backing Murmu.
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The Bengal BJP had in June announced that it would write to all the TMC MPs and MLAs, seeking their support for the NDA nominee. Last week, Banerjee had said that Murmu, a tribal BJP leader from Odisha, could have been a consensus candidate had the saffron party discussed with the opposition parties before fielding her.
