Presidential election: Akhilesh’s aide OP Rajbhar announces support for NDA candidate Draupadi Murmu

presidential election 2022Samajwadi Party (SP) ally Om Prakash Rajbhar’s Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) on Friday announced that it will support National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate Draupadi Murmu in the presidential election. Rajbhar said the decision was taken after discussions with party leaders and office-bearers. His party has six MLAs in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly.

Om Prakash Rajbhar had created panic in the opposition camp by attending a dinner organized by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow last Friday. This indicated a rift in the opposition alliance and sparked speculation that Rajbhar may walk out of the alliance that had fought the recent assembly elections together.

Formally SP’s ally, Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) chief Shivpal Yadav also attended the dinner hosted for Murmu. Jansatta Dal’s democratic head Raghuraj Pratap Singh, also known as Raja Bhaiya, and Uma Shankar Singh, the lone Bahujan Samaj Party MLA in Uttar Pradesh, were also present there.

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Differences are visible in the opposition coalition ahead of the presidential election to be held on 18 July. Earlier, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief Shibu Soren had said that his party would support NDA’s presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu. It is to be noted that the JMM is in alliance with the Congress and has 30 MLAs in the state assembly. Yashwant Sinha is the opposition candidate from Jharkhand. The ruling party was in a dilemma whether to support “sons of the land” or “fellow tribals”. Murmu had visited Jharkhand on July 4 and met Soren to seek his party’s support. His son Hemant Soren, Chief Minister, was also present in the meeting.

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