Shiv Sena is expected to strongly pitch for Swaminathan's candidature when party president Uddhav Thackeray meets BJP chief Amit Shah on Sunday.
The numbers now seem to be in favour of Kovind, the NDA nominee for the post of the President of India.
"Thackeray further said, But if it is for the development of the nation then we may support". He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi called him on Monday morning to inform him that he was the BJP's presidential candidate.
Interestingly, the BJP earlier allied with the Sena and used this to establish a foothold in Mumbai. "I have a very old relation with him", Mulayam was quoted as saying by the ANI. He also refused to accept that Sena had made a U-turn.
Downplaying the rift within the NDA following Uddhav Thackeray's criticism that the BJP was fielding Kovind to win over Dalit votes, Swamy said that it was natural of its "Hindutva brother" to side with the ruling dispensation.
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Sena president Uddhav Thackeray declared the party's decision on Tuesday evening after conferring with senior party leaders. Amit Shah had said during his visit to Mumbai that Shiv Sena's support was needed. "We will give our final decision on the NDA nominee tomorrow", Mr Thackeray said. BJP has chosen Dalit leader Ram Nath Kovind with an eye on the forthcoming assembly elections in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. If they had a problem with that, we wanted (eminent agriculturist) M.S. Swaminathan. If Sena's votes don't go into the ballot box in support of Kovind but remain neutral, the candidate's chances do not dim one whit.
"If we look at the overall condition right now, there is an NDA government and we are its constituent". Azad's meeting comes ahead of a JD-U meeting on Wednesday on the Presidential election.
That meeting would be followed by another with BJP ministers in Maharashtra government at the chief minister's residence "Varsha".
The Left parties are keen on the opposition putting up a candidate because they see the Presidential election as an "ideological battle" and the NDA candidate as an RSS-backed man. I will meet leaders of major political parties and seek their support.
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