Kolkata, July 8: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in West Bengal on Friday wrote a letter to the Trinamool Congress MPs, seeking support for NDA’s Presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu.
The two BJP signatories in the letter are the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal assembly, Suvendu Adhikari and state BJP president and party MP, Sukanta Majumdar.
Murmu is expected to arrive here on Saturday for campaigning. She would also hold a meeting with the BJP legislators from West Bengal.
It was learnt that the Trinamool Congress MPs were not satisfied with the content of the letter, which read that since the victory of Murmu in the Presidential election is certain, Trinamool Congress MPs should caste their votes in favour of her.
Veteran Trinamool Congress leader and three-time party Lok Sabha member Saugata Roy said: “If the BJP leaders are confident of Murmu’s victory then when they are appealing to Trinamool Congress MPs for their votes?”
He added that since Yashwant Sinha is already being fielded as the united Opposition candidate in the Presidential polls, as of now, there is no question of replying positively to the appeal of Adhikari and Majumdar.
Recently, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee commented that she would have given a positive thought about Murmu had BJP confirmed her about their choice of candidate before Sinha was fielded as the opposition candidate.
After being nominated as the Presidential candidate, Murmu even called up the chief minister seeking her support. However, the chief minister expressed inability on this count.
Sinha was fielded as the opposition candidate after the first three choices namely Sharad Pawar, Farooq Abdullah and Gopalkrishna Gandhi turned down the offers to contest.