Kolkata: NDA presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu visited Bengal on Tuesday to campaign for the upcoming polls.
She had met the BJP leaders in a hotel in Kolkata and according to the saffron party sources, the lawmakers assured her of all support.
According to the Election Commission, Bengal’s total vote value is the third highest in the country after Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra with 44,394 votes with 294 MLAs.
According to BJP sources, in the closed door meeting, BJP national vice president Dilip Ghosh said that he is expecting cross-voting during the election as was seen during the election of Ram Nath Kovind.
“We had three MLAs and the total vote was 13, 10 votes were from TMC due to cross-voting. There are chances of cross-voting even this time,” said the sources quoting Ghosh.
Out of 17 BJP MPs, Subhas Sarkar and Raju Bisht were not present in the meeting.
The saffron camp sources said that several BJP MLAs including Ranaghat (South) Mukut Mani Adhikari, Balurghat MLA Ashok Lahiri, Darjeeling Neeraj Zimba, Kurseong MLA Bishnu Prasad Sharma were not present in the meeting.
“The North Bengal MLAs have met Murmu during her visit to North Bengal. Ashok Lahiri is not well for which he could come but he will be present on the poll day. Bhatpara MLA Pawan Kumar Singh—son of Barrackpore MP Arjun Singh was not invited,” mentioned the BJP sources.
Earlier this day, Murmu visited the ancestral house of Swami Vivekananda and the sanyasis of the Ramkrishna Mission gifted her books and a saree of Ma Sarada.
During her visit to the ancestral house of Vivekanada, Murmu spoke about her fight from a humble family background of Odisha.
On Monday, Murmu visited North Bengal and met with Sikkim MPs and MLAs.
Union Minister Smriti Irani urged that if Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is in favour of ‘adivasis’ then she should vote for the NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu.
