Mamata Banerjee said opposition didn't know BJP would announce a tribal leader as presidential candidate
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has turned the volume down on her rhetoric against the ruling BJP's presidential candidate, Draupadi Murmu, as she is most likely to win the election.
Ms Banerjee had pushed the hardest for a joint opposition presidential candidate and signed up several parties including the Congress to back a common candidate. After much searching, they settled on her party Trinamool Congress's leader Yashwant Sinha.
But as the presidential election nears, Ms Banerjee appears to have seen the inevitable that would happen on July 18, polling day.
"I would have thought if the BJP had known about the candidate earlier...In the current political scenario, Draupadi Murmu is more likely to win, especially after what happened in Maharashtra," Ms Banerjee said after inaugurating the rath yatra at Kolkata's Iskcon temple.
The ruling party on its own has about 49 per cent of the electoral college and to elect the President, one needs to cross the 50 per cent mark.
Ms Murmu is a former Governor of Jharkhand. A resident of Odisha, if elected, the 64-year-old will be the first tribal woman to become the President of India.
"We have sentiments towards tribals. If the BJP had earlier said they would nominate a tribal for the presidency, all the opposition parties could have sat together and discussed it. But they only called us to ask for our suggestions," Ms Banerjee said.
"It would have been better for the country if there was a presidential candidate in the larger interest of people. I cannot do anything alone now. It has been decided by 17 decision-making parties. Now the nominations have been submitted. There is nothing more to be done," the Bengal Chief Minister said.
Ms Murmu was also a strong contender for the post before the 2017 presidential elections. But on the occasion, then Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind, who happened to be a Dalit, was named the government's choice for the post.