SHILLONG, JULY 5: The Hill State People’s Democratic Party (HSPDP) on Tuesday announced its decision to support the BJP-National Democratic Alliance (NDA) nominee Draupadi Murmu for the upcoming presidential election fixed on July 18.

The decision was taken based on the request made by the BJP National Executive Member & In-charge Presidential Election AL Hek.

After the CEC meeting, HSPDP president KP Pangniang said Hek had requested the party to extend its support to the NDA presidential candidate.

“After a thorough discussion, we have decided to accept his request by extending our support to the NDA candidate,” he said.

The HSPDP has two MLAs in the 60-member House.

On the other hand, Pangniang said that the HSPDP has also decided to discuss the issue with its Regional Democratic Alliance (RDA) partner – United Democratic Party (UDP).

“We want to unitedly support the NDA candidate as RDA partners,” he said.

When asked, the HSPDP president said the decision to support is because the party wants to see a tribal president in the country since this is happening for the first time in the history of India.

“Secondly, we cannot deny the fact that we are already part and parcel in the MDA government so we feel that we need to respect their request. And thirdly, as a party, we feel that we need the support and cooperation because most of the issues in the party manifesto have to be addressed by the central government,” he added.