The Presidential elections will be held on July 18.
The Shiromani Akali Dal today accepted presidential hopeful Droupadi Murmu's appeal for support in the forthcoming poll "as she symbolises the cause of minorities, the exploited and backward classes as well as the dignity of women". A resolution passed at a meeting of the party's core committee in Chandigarh this afternoon said "she has emerged as a symbol of the poor and tribal segments in the country".
Later, SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal met Ms Murmu to convey to her the party's decision to support her candidature. Mr Badal was accompanied by senior leaders Balwinder Singh Bhunder, Charanjit Singh Atwal, Prem Singh Chandumajra, and Mr Harcharan Bains.
"While our reservations with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over key issues like removing a sense of insecurity from the minds of minorities and justice for Punjab, especially the Sikhs, still remain, the SAD is eventually inspired and guided by the ideals placed before humanity by the great Guru Sahiban in supporting the cause of the poor, the downtrodden, and minorities including the tribal segments of society. Ms Murmu not only symbolises the dignity of womenfolk but also belongs to the very downtrodden and the minority classes for whose cause the great Guru Sahiban made supreme sacrifices," the core committee said at the end of a detailed discussion lasting over three hours at the party headquarters.
Mr Badal said that his party could never follow or support a candidate fielded by Congress as the grand old party has "betrayed" the Sikh community by "attacking the Golden Temple" and got "thousands of Sikhs killed".
"Our decision is guided and inspired by our principles and convictions based on the ideals placed before us by the great Guru Sahiban and we have chosen to go by these principles and ideals in supporting Ms Murmu," Mr Badal added.
Mr Badal said BJP chief JP Nadda had called him to ask for support in the upcoming Presidential elections. Mr Badal had told him that a decision will be taken collectively by senior SAD leaders in the core committee.
"Madam (Droupadi Murmu) also called me and asked for support. Considering Madam's request, we have decided that we will do all we can to try to make her the country's President," he said.
Ms Murmu is a former Governor of Jharkhand. A resident of Odisha, if elected, the 64-year-old will be the first tribal woman to become the President of India.
The ruling party on its own has about 49 per cent of the electoral college and to elect the President, one needs to cross the 50 per cent mark.
Several opposition parties, on Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee's insistence, fielded former union minister Yashwant Sinha as the joint candidate for President against the BJP. The candidature is more of a symbolic show of opposition unity as Mr Sinha is almost certain to lose.
Ms Banerjee has, however, changed track now saying they would have considered not feeding a candidate had they known the BJP would field a tribal candidate.
"We have sentiments towards tribals. If the BJP had earlier said they would nominate a tribal for the presidency, all the opposition parties could have sat together and discussed it. But they only called us to ask for our suggestions," Ms Banerjee said.
The elections will be held on July 18.