Yashwant Sinha stops in his tracks as JMM tilts towards throwing weight behind Droupadi Murmu

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) refusing to unequivocally support the Opposition candidate in the Presidential election and its decision to call a meeting on Saturday to finalise its stand after BJP nominated Droupadi Murmu, a tribal, has put the launch of Yashwant Sinha’s campaign from his home state in disarray.

The Opposition is also waiting with bated breath about the stand of other non-NDA parties like JD(S) and Bharatiya Tribal Party. JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda has already described Murmu as a “suitable and competent” candidate.

Sources said Sinha was to reach Jharkhand on Thursday evening and launch his campaign by meeting the ruling JMM-Congress-RJD coalition MLAs on Friday but it has been put on hold, as the JMM indicated that it was inclined to support Murmu, a former Jharkhand Governor.

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JMM General Secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya told DH that a decision on Presidential elections will be taken only at a meeting of its party’s top leadership on Saturday.

Sinha’s campaign managers said they will finalise his programme only on Friday. Without clarity on the JMM stand, it was felt that Sinha reaching Jharkhand would be counter-productive.

Sinha hails from Jharkhand but the BJP fielding Murmu has put the JMM in a dilemma. Voting against Murmu could pose a problem as it would be seen as going against tribals. A tribal nominated party, JMM has already indicated that they may support Murmu after it said she is a good choice.

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With BJD, who keeps equidistant from both NDA and Opposition though is friendly towards the BJP, offering support to the "daughter of Odisha" as well as YSR Congress doing so, Murmu has votes with a value of at least 6.17 lakh in an electoral college of 10.86 lakh, which is comfortably above the majority mark by at least 74,000. Sinha could get 4.37 lakh votes.

If one adds Opposition allies JMM and JD(S) to Murmu’s votes, it could touch 6.28 lakh. The BJP expects more parties to join them in electing the first tribal President of the country.

While JMM and JD(S) had attended a joint Opposition meeting on June 15 on the Presidential election and endorsed the need for a common candidate, both parties have indicated that they may not stand by the Opposition nominee after the BJP declared the name of Murmu.

Though he has not explicitly said that his party would support Murmu, Gowda on Wednesday said that she is a “suitable and competent” candidate. JD(S) has votes with a value of at least 3,630. Its two MLAs had cross voted and they are likely to vote in favour of BJP and Congress respectively.

On Tuesday night itself, BJD supremo and Odisha Chief Minister announced his support for Murmu. BJD has votes worth around 31,500.

The BJP expects that smaller parties like Bharatiya Tribal Party, which has a couple of MLAs, will support Murmu. There are 138 tribal Assembly seats in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand with around 85 from the Congress and the BJP expects that many of them may vote for Murmu.