AGARTALA:
Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha, who cast his vote on July 18 to elect the 15th President of India, has said that he is confident National Democratic Alliance (NDA) presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu will come out victorious.
“We came here today to give a vote to our NDA candidate Draupadi Murmu who is from an indigenous community. She also visited Tripura a few days back and I am confident enough that she will win a landslide victory. Not only our party but also other parties supported her and she will win. Everyone is coming and will vote for her,” he said.
While speaking to reporters, he said there is no chance of cross-voting and added, “We have urged the opposition parties too to give vote as for the first time an indigenous person is a candidate for president and I feel they should support.”
Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma, on the other hand, said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is creating history by supporting candidates like Murmu.
“This is for the first time in history that an indigenous lady is a candidate for the presidential election. It is a very significant day in the history of India. This is what democracy and the real meaning of by the people, for the people, and of the people, is. She was a governor. I want to thank PM Modi for giving a candidate like Murmu,” he said.
He further said that BJP didn’t hope that they would get such candidates and opposition parties were also shocked.
“BJP is creating history. We are supporting her wholeheartedly. I want to congratulate her in advance and I hope opposition parties also cast their votes for her for the sake of the country,” he added.
The presidential election began in Tripura at 10 am along with the rest of the country, and all the MLAs of the ruling BJP and its ally Indigenous People Front of Tripura (IPFT), and opposition parties like Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and Congress had come to cast their votes.