Presidential election: Will Shiv Sena repeat its 1997, 2007 and 2012 decision?

The Shiv Sena is yet to finalise on whom to support in the Presidential poll: the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance’s nominee Droupadi Murmu, or Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha.

In the next two-three days, Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray would announce his final decision. Majority of the party leaders have favoured supporting Murmu.

It is now to be seen whether the Shiv Sena repeats the decisions it made in 1997, 2007 and 2012—when the party broke ranks from the coalition it was in—and supports the candidate of its choice in the Presidential election.

Thackeray presided over a meeting of MPs, MLAs and MLCs on Monday at Matoshree, his residence in Bandra here.

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The Shiv Sena has 22 Members of Parliament—19 in the Lok Sabha (18 from Maharashtra and 1 from Dadra and Nagar Haveli) and three in Rajya Sabha.

At least five MPs were absent from the meeting—including Dr Shrikant Shinde, son of current Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, and Bhavana Gawali, who was removed as party’s chief whip in Lok Sabha.

“A meeting was held today in which various issues were discussed; of course, the Presidential polls were discussed…the names of Droupadi Murmu and Yashwant Sinha were discussed,” Shiv Sena chief spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut said.

According to Raut, Thackeray would announce his decision soon. “Whatever Thackeray says would be binding on all of us,” he said.

A large number of lawmakers were said to have wanted to support Murmu—as she is the first from the tribal community—and whether the party could take a step towards improving its relationship with the BJP.

On the other hand, some of them were of the opinion to go as Maha Vikas Aghadi and support Sinha.

Raut, who is also the leader of Shiv Sena Parliamentary Party, pointed out that, in the past, Shiv Sena took a stand in the Presidential election despite being in alliance with the BJP. “We had supported T N Seshan, Pratibha Patil and Pranab Mukherjee,” he said.

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Senior leader Gajanan Kirtikar said three MPs—Sanjay Jadhav, Sanjay Mandlik and Hemant Patil—could not make it to the meeting, but would support the party’s decision.

In 1997, the Shiv Sena had supported the late T N Seshan, who unsuccessfully contested against late K R Narayanan.

While being within the NDA coalition, the Shiv Sena broke ranks with the BJP and had supported Pratibha Patil and Pranab Mukherjee—the two Congress-United Progressive Alliance nominees for the Presidential election, in 2007 and 2012, respectively.

The Shiv Sena supported Patil because she hailed from Maharashtra, and Mukherjee for his merit.

Patil had defeated Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, a BJP veteran and three-time Rajasthan chief minister while Mukherjee defeated P A Sangma, a former Lok Sabha speaker.

According to latest information, Murmu and Sinha both are expected to visit Maharashtra this week.