Further cementing the prospect of NDA nominee Ram Nath Kovind succeeding Pranab Mukherjee as the President of India, the AIADMK’s O Panneerselvam faction today extended support to the saffron party’ nominee.
With support from the OPS camp, the NDA will get votes of 12 MLAs and 12 MPs from the AIADMK.
The decision was taken at a consultative meeting chaired by Pannerselvam with senior colleagues this morning, sources in the camp said.
The Purtchi Thalaivi Amma faction's announcement comes a day after the AIADMK (Amma) camp led by Chief Minister K Palaniswami announced its support to Kovind.
Despite the ongoing tussle between the OPS and Palaniswami factions, the AIADMK has extended collective support to the BJP.
Yesterday, the AIADMK (Amma), led by Chief Minister K Palaniswami, had announced its support to Ram Nath Kovind’s candidature. The announcement came two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi rang up Palaniswami to seek his party's support for the National Democratic Alliance nominee.
On the other hand, the decision by the Panneerselvam camp comes a day after he praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for giving the people a corruption-free government.
Meanwhile, a divided Opposition is heading into a crucial meeting today to decide on the nominee for the presidential poll against NDA’s Ram Nath Kovind.
The Left has asserted that 16 of the 17 parties that had earlier pledged to field a candidate will attend the meeting.
The Opposition suffered a major blow with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar extending his support to BJP’s candidate yesterday.
Several other Opposition parties said that they will decide who to back only after assessing the candidate picked at today’s meeting, to be chaired by Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
With the opposition yet to name its candidate, former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar met Sonia Gandhi at her residence yesterday evening, fuelling speculation over her emerging as the front runner.
