YSR Congress supports NDA's Murmu for President

AMARAVATI: The YSR Congress Party has pledged its support to the NDA's official nominee Draupadi Murmu in the Presidential elections. Chief Minister Y S Jaganmohan Reddy on Thursday announced that his party would support the NDA's nominee in consonance with his party's fundamental priniciple of social justice to the downtrodden sections. Murmu is a woman from tribal community in Odisha.

It is expected that Ms Murmu would be extended support by the YSR Congress, while the Biju Janata Dal led by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had already announced that it would vote for the NDA candidate.

YSR Congress supports NDA's Murmu for President

The YSR Congress Parliamentary Party leader V VIjayasai Reddy had already tweeted congratulating Ms Murmu and had indicated that the party would support the NDA nominee. Though Jagan originally planned to attend the event of nomination filing by Ms Murmu, he stayed back in Vijayawada. However, the YSRCPP leader Vijayasai Reddy and YSR Congress party's floor leader in Lok Sabha P V Midhun Reddy signed the nomination papers of Ms Murmu on behalf of their party. The YSR Congress has 22 MPs in Lok Sabha (one of them – Rahuramakrishnam Raju -- has turned a rebel) and 9 MPs in Rajya Sabha. The party has 151 MLAs. The party commands a strength of 4.2 per cent vote share.

While Ms Murmu will be visiting Amaravati on July 4, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be at Bhimavaram on the same day to inaugurate the statue of revolutionary freedom fighter Alluri Sitarama Raju on the same day. However, it is not clear whether Jaganmohan Reddy would participate in either or both events as he would be away from June 28 to July 3 in Paris to attend the graduation ceremony of his daughter.