Droupadi Murmu arrives in Maharashtra, meets MPs and MLAs, Shinde faction

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The NDA presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu on Thursday visited Mumbai and interacted with MLAs and MPs from the BJP, the Eknath Shinde faction and other allies. Murmu, however, refrained from reaching out to Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray in an apparent snub to the leader, who on Monday decided to extend support to the NDA presidential candidate.
Historically, Presidential candidates have visited Matoshree to meet members of the Thackeray clan and solicit their support for their candidature. However, with the fallout between the BJP and Uddhav Thackeray, the practice has been discontinued even though Thackeray bowing to pressure from a section of Shiv Sena MPs unilaterally announced his support to Murmu much to the chagrin of parties like the Congress and NCP with whom it was a constituent in the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government.
“As far as I know in the itinerary of Murmu the visit (at Matoshree) was not scheduled,” Deputy CM and senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis said when asked if she would be meeting Thackeray.
Earlier, the Shiv Sena had extended its support to Congress candidates Pratibha Patil and Pranab Mukherjee as presidential candidates. Senior Congress leaders had visited Matoshree to thank Thackerays, and Patil and Mukherjee also visited Matoshree to meet Thackerays.
This time, however, even after extending the support, neither any BJP leader nor Murmu visited Matoshree till Thursday.
A senior Sena leader said, “Uddhav Thackeray showed a large heart by extending support to Murmu considering that a tribal woman should get an opportunity to be at the top position of the country and kept party politics aside. The presidential candidate should have paid the courtesy visit.”
Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant said, “We have extended support considering the national interest. it is on them whether they wish to visit or not. We got orders from Shiv Sena Uddhav Ji Thackeray and we will follow the same.”
Murmu, who arrived in Mumbai on Thursday held a meeting with BJP and Shinde camp leaders and elected members of the state legislative assembly and members of the Parliament. She interacted with the members.
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