The JDU has decided to support the NDA’s candidate for President Droupadi Murmu, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar announced on Wednesday after a conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at a time the BJP-JDU alliance has come under immense strain following confrontations on multiple fronts.

Leaders in the JDU, which had earlier broken ranks twice with its then allies over presidential elections, said Nitish had no option but to go with the choice because of his public commitment to matters concerning women and the marginalised sections, and the Opposition camp’s prolonged search for a candidate before Yashwant Sinha agreed to take up the challenge.

Sinha hails from Bihar and had served in the state when he was an IAS officer before he entered politics and initially joined forces with the socialists, an ideology Nitish follows.

Nitish said on Wednesday: “The Prime Minister called yesterday and informed that Droupadi Murmu is going to be made the presidential candidate. We thank him from the heart for this.”

“Declaring a tribal woman as the candidate for the top post of the country is a matter of joy. She is originally from Odisha and excellently discharged her duties as a minister in the state government there. Afterwards, her role as Jharkhand governor was appreciable,” he said.

Murmu, who belongs to a Scheduled Tribe, had been a minister in Odisha in the early 2000s and served as Jharkhand governor from 2015 to 2021.

The JDU welcomed Murmu’s nomination for the post of President. “Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, in principle, has been dedicated to women’s empowerment and the exploited classes of the society. The JDU welcomes and supports the candidature of Droupadi Murmu…,” JDU national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh a.k.a. Lalan Singh tweeted.

Nitish and his party had supported UPA candidate Pranab Mukherjee in the 2012 presidential election despite being a part of the NDA. He had backed NDA nominee Ram Nath Kovind in 2017 despite being a part of the Opposition Grand Alliance in Bihar.

“Nitish could not have afforded to oppose a woman and a tribal. It is true that we are not on good terms with the BJP for the past many months, but the party has fielded a good candidate and the Opposition had to struggle to find a candidate,” a senior JDU leader said on condition of anonymity.