Rangasamy expresses joy at Murmu’s selection as NDA’s presidential candidate
“His visit to Pondicherry shows the importance that the Prime Minister has attached to UT”
“His visit to Pondicherry shows the importance that the Prime Minister has attached to UT”
Chief Minister N. Rangasamy on Saturday said he was satisfied with the selection of Draupadi Murmu by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) as its presidential candidate.
“We should be grateful to the Prime Minister for choosing a woman from the Scheduled Tribal community as his presidential candidate. She has extensive experience having served as a minister and governor. She is the right candidate,” he said, addressing an NDA meeting attended by Ms Murmu, at a private hotel.
The Chief Minister said Ms Murmu’s campaign visit to Pondicherry showed the importance the Prime Minister attaches to Pondicherry, sources who attended the closed meeting said. The Hindu.
“We originally planned to go to Chennai when Ms. Murmu traveled to Tamil Nadu for her campaign. But the Prime Minister suggested a visit by the candidate to Pondicherry. Our constituency is much less so. “Even then, the candidate took the time to visit us. It shows the importance the Prime Minister attaches to UT,” Mr Rangasamy said.
Ms. Murmu, in her address, quoted a few lines from one of Bharathiar’s poems, which reflects on the education of women and the importance of giving legislative power to women. “It has now come true,” she said.
The meeting was attended by all 16 NDA legislators (10 from the All India NR Congress and six from the BJP) and four independents (out of six) from the Assembly. The Independents present at the meeting were M. Sivasankar, P. Angalane, Gollapalli Srinivas Ashok (all three attached to BJP) and Prakash Kumar (attached to AINRC).
Sources within AINRC said that the two other independent PRs Siva and Nehru, alias Kuppusamy, attached to AINRC, had agreed to vote for the NDA candidate in the presidential election. BJP President V. Saminathan chaired the NDA meeting.
Ms. Murmu had arrived on a special plane from New Delhi. She was received by the Chief Minister, Home Minister A. Namassivayam, President R. Selvam and Mr. Saminathan, and was accompanied by the Union Minister of State for Fisheries L. Murugan and the Union Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muralidharan.
In the Union Territory, the value of votes of MPs and MPs in the presidential election are 16 and 700 respectively. representing Rajya Sabha.