Boost for NDA - Which are the opposition parties backing its presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu?

New Delhi: As the Presidential elections draw near, NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu has reached out to several Opposition parties for support. While Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Saturday backed the tribal leader and former Governor, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha had called a meeting of its MPs and MLAs to discuss the upcoming presidential election. A group of leading Opposition parties have incidentally fielded former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha as their candidate.

Murmu had also called Congress president Sonia Gandhi, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, and Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee before filing her nomination for the upcoming polls. Reports quoting sources said that all three leaders had expressed their best wishes to her.

The NDA candidate's nomination papers have been signed by over 500 elected representatives as proposers and seconders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah and BJP president JP Nadda. She has also secured the backing of several opposition parties including BSP chief Mayawati and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy who helms the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party.

"We've decided to support NDA's Presidential election candidate Droupadi Murmu. We've taken this decision neither in support of BJP or NDA nor against opposition but keeping our party and movement in mind," Mayawati said today. She also lashed out at Banerjee and other Opposition leaders for excluding the BSP from its recent meetings to discuss the same.

An official statement released by the Andhra Pradesh government added that Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy believes that it falls in line with the emphasis he has always given to the representation of the SC, ST, BC, and minority communities.

Leaders of the Biju Janata Dal and YSR Congress - both of whom had announced their support to Murmu - were present during the filing of her nomination papers.

Opposition presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha meanwhile promised to raise his voice for farmers, workers, unemployed youth, women and all marginalised sections of society if he wins the election. In a letter to Opposition parties on Friday, Sinha thanked them for choosing him unanimously as their common presidential candidate and assured them that he will conscientiously uphold, without fear or favour, the basic values and guiding ideals of the Constitution.