NEW DELHI, 21 Jun: The BJP parliamentary board on Tuesday named Draupadi Murmu, a tribal leader of the party from Odisha, as the ruling NDA’s candidate for the presidential election.
BJP president JP Nadda announced her name at a press conference following a meeting of the party top brass.
Murmu (64), a former Jharkhand governor, will be the first tribal woman to occupy the top constitutional post if she is elected, a strong possibility as numbers are stacked in the favour of the BJP-led NDA.
The opposition had earlier announced Yashwant Sinha as its joint candidate for the post. The poll is slated for 18 July.
Former union minister Yashwant Sinha will be the consensus presidential candidate of several opposition parties, including the Congress, the TMC and the Samajwadi Party, the parties said in a joint statement on Tuesday.
Opposition leaders, who gathered at the Parliament annexe for the meeting convened by NCP chief Sharad Pawar to decide on a consensus candidate for the presidential election, unanimously agreed on Sinha’s name.
“We are happy to announce that we have unanimously chosen Yashwant Sinha as the common candidate of the opposition parties for the presidential election, which will take place on 18 July, 2022,” Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said while reading out a joint statement after the meeting. (PTI)
