Uddhav Thackeray 'forced' to support Droupadi Murmu: Yashwant Sinha

"I'm not fighting a political party, but the might of the Central government," Sinha said while talking to reporters in Guwahati on the sidelines of his campaign.

Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday announced that the Shiv Sena led by him will support Murmu in the Presidential polls on July 18.

The decision came a day after 16 of the party's 22 MPs told Thackeray to support her "because she is a woman from a tribal community".

"Tribal leaders of my party told me that this is the first time a tribal woman has a chance to become President of India," he had said, insisting, “Nobody pressured me in the meeting of Sena MPs."

“Actually, going by the present political atmosphere, I should not have backed her," he had said, "But we are not narrow-minded."

Reports claimed that Thackeray had given in to the pressure within his Sena which has been already deserted by several MLAs after Eknath Shinde broke away last month and replaced him as Chief Minister of Maharashtra with the BJP's support.

Accusing the Centre of attempting to weaken the opposition ahead of the Presidential elections, Sinha said it was "all about the misuse of the Enforcement Directorate... By using agencies -- they are pulling down elected governments".

The Centre is trying to "break the opposition parties before the Presidential elections," he alleged.

"The Trinamool Congress and Mamata Banerjee are totally supporting me. The Aam Admi Party will open its cards soon, I am aware of it. Only one party in the opposition camp is supporting the NDA candidate -- that is the Shiv Sena. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi was not part of the opposition meeting, but it is still supporting me, so we have lot of opposition support," Sinha added.

However, with the growing support and the numbers that NDA has, Murmu seems to be ahead in the race and is set to become the first tribal woman to be the President if elected in the polls on July 18.