The JMM may have declared support to the NDA Presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu but on Saturday, Chief Minister and party chief Hemant Soren invited Opposition nominee Yashwant Sinha to his official residence on the last day of his campaign.
Sinha, who hails from Jharkhand, was to start his Presidential bid from his home state on June 24 but he had to reschedule it as the JMM had indicated that they may have to rethink its support for the joint Opposition candidate as they could not be seen voting against a tribal.
On Saturday, Sinha’s close aide Sudheendra Kulkarni tweeted a photo of Sinha’s meeting with Soren and said, “There is always more to politics than meets the eye. Hemant Soren, the Chief Minister of Jharkhand and chief of JMM invited Yashwant Sinha, Opposition’s common candidate for the presidential election, to his official residence in Ranchi today.”
Sinha also tweeted photographs with Soren and said they discussed issues of common concern.
In Ranchi, Sinha met Congress MLAs and other lawmakers besides holding a press conference.
During his campaign trail that started in Kerala, Sinha visited Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Chandigarh, and Jammu and Kashmir among others.
However, he did not visit West Bengal after Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee said that they could have thought about supporting Murmu if the government had approached the Opposition with the proposal before they finalised Sinha’s name.
Sinha also released a video on Twitter outlining what the Presidential election was all about.
He said, “this year the Presidential election is not a contest between two individuals but two ideologies. Only one side wants to protect the provisions & values enshrined in our Constitution. I appeal to all MPs and MLAs to vote according to the Constitution and their conscience this time.”