JMM to hold meeting tomorrow over decision on extending support to presidential poll candidates

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) on Friday called for a meeting of its legislators and MPs, which will be chaired by the party supremo Shibu Soren on Saturday.

The meeting will be held to take a decision on extending support to the Presidential election candidates.

For the upcoming Presidential polls in India on July 18, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA has nominated Droupadi Murmu as their candidate, who had filed her nominations today.

Besides, the NDA partners, Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) leader V Vijayasai Reddy and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) Tukuni Sahu, BJJD MP Dr Sasmit Patra and Jagannath Saraka were also present at Murmu's nomination filing.

Notably, Murmu- the first woman tribal leader to file her nomination for the top constitutional post of the country, is a seasoned politician from Odisha coupled with an extensive background in the field of academics reflects that she will uplift the tribal sections of the country.

She is also the former Governor of Jharkhand and a former Odisha minister.

She will face opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha in the presidential contest on July 18.

Sinha, the former Union Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader was named as the common candidate of the Opposition for the Presidential elections on June 21. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had made the announcement of his name as the presidential candidate of the opposition during a meeting.

The announcement came shortly after Sinha hinted that he has accepted the proposal made by a section of Opposition leaders to make him their presidential candidate.

Sinha had quit the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2018 and joined the TMC last year. He was later appointed as the party's vice-president.

The election for the office of the President of India is scheduled for July 18 and the counting of votes, if needed, will be done on July 21.

( With inputs from ANI )