Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has declared that the Shiv Sena led by him would support BJP-led NDA's presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu.The decision to back Murmu was taken a day after 16 Shiv Sena MPs conveyed to Thackeray to support her as she is a woman from tribal community.
Thackeray said that he is not under any pressure to back Murmu in the upcoming presidential elections. "Nobody pressured me in the meeting of Sena MPs," Thackeray said, referring to the deliberation at the meeting of Sena MPs.
However, the decision is being seen as an attempt on the part of Thackeray to avoid further dissension in the party. Shiv Sena faced a major rebellion last month that resulted in the split in the party. Almost 40 of 55 party MLAs broke away under the leadership of Eknath Shinde, who replaced Thackeray as the chief minister of the state.
CVoter-IndiaTracker conducted a countrywide survey for IANS to know people's opinion about Thackeray's decision to back Murmu and the possible impact on the party if Shiv Sena had backed opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha.
During the survey, the majority of respondents opined that the Shiv Sena would have faced another split if the party had supported Sinha. According to the survey data, 63 per cent respondents said the Shiv Sena could have broken once again if the party had supported Sinha.
However, 37 per cent of respondents disagreed with the sentiment.The survey further revealed that while a majority of the NDA supporters 77 per cent believe that Shiv Sena would have faced another rebellion if the party had not supported Murmu, views of opposition supporters were divided on the issue. During the survey, while 54 per cent of opposition voters said that Thackeray decided to back Murmu to avoid another revolt in the party, 46 per cent did not share the sentiment.
According to the survey data, while a majority of most of the social groups believe that Thackeray decided to back Murmu under pressure from the Shiv Sena MPs to avoid dissension in the party, a majority of Muslims did not share the sentiment.
According to the survey data, 75 per cent Upper Caste Hindus (UCH), 63 per cent Other Backward Classes (OBC), 69 per cent Scheduled Tribes and 66 per cent Scheduled Castes opined Shiv Sena would have faced another division if the party had hot declared its support for the NDA presidential candidate. At the same time, the majority of Muslims - 68 per cent did not agree with this opinion.