Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has declared that the Shiv Sena led by him would support BJP-led NDA’s presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu.

The decision to back Murmu was taken a day after 16 Shiv Sena MPs conveyed to Thackeray to support her as she is a woman from tribal community.

Thackeray said that he is not under any pressure to back Murmu in the upcoming presidential elections. “Nobody pressured me in the meeting of Sena MPs,” Thackeray said, referring to the deliberation at the meeting of Sena MPs.

However, the decision is being seen as an attempt on the part of Thackeray to avoid further dissension in the party. Shiv Sena faced a major rebellion last month that resulted in the split in the party. Almost 40 of 55 party MLAs broke away under the leadership of Eknath Shinde, who replaced Thackeray as the chief minister of the state.

CVoter-IndiaTracker conducted a countrywide survey for IANS to know people’s opinion about Thackeray’s decision to back Murmu and the possible impact on the party if Shiv Sena had backed opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha.

During the survey, the majority of respondents opined that the Shiv Sena would have faced another split if the party had supported Sinha. According to the survey data, 63 per cent respondents said the Shiv Sena could have broken once again if the party had supported Sinha. However, 37 per cent of respondents disagreed with the sentiment.

The survey further revealed that while a majority of the NDA supporters — 77 per cent believe that Shiv Sena would have faced another rebellion if the party had not supported Murmu, views of opposition supporters were divided on the issue. During the survey, while 54 per cent of opposition voters said that Thackeray decided to back Murmu to avoid another revolt in the party, 46 per cent did not share the sentiment.

According to the survey data, while a majority of most of the social groups believe that Thackeray decided to back Murmu under pressure from the Shiv Sena MPs to avoid dissension in the party, a majority of Muslims did not share the sentiment.

According to the survey data, 75 per cent Upper Caste Hindus (UCH), 63 per cent Other Backward Classes (OBC), 69 per cent Scheduled Tribes and 66 per cent Scheduled Castes opined Shiv Sena would have faced another division if the party had hot declared its support for the NDA presidential candidate. At the same time, the majority of Muslims – 68 per cent did not agree with this opinion.

India will become the most populous country in the world, surpassing China in 2023, according to a United Nations report released on World Population Day on July 11.

India’s population is likely to go up from the present figure of 1.417 billion to 1.429 billion to surpass China. Population explosion in the country has been a major concern for the ruling dispensations in the country. There have been demands from different quarters for strict population control law in the country.

Union Minister Giriraj Singh demanded stringent population control law in the country after the UN released its latest report that projected India to surpass China’s population in the coming year.

CVoter-IndiaTracker conducted an opinion poll for IANS to know people’s views about the issue of increasing population in the country. During the survey, a whopping majority of respondents — 82 per cent said that the population of India is going out of control, only 19 per cent disagreed.

Problem of the ever increasing population of the country is one issue on which the majority of both NDA voters and opposition supporters expressed unanimity in their views. During the survey, 88 per cent of NDA voters and 77 per cent opposition supporters opined that the population explosion has become a perennial problem for the country.

Similarly, the majority of respondents from different social groups opined that the country’s population is becoming unmanageable.

As per the survey data, 87 per cent Upper Caste Hindus (UCH), 86 per cent Other Backward Classes (OBC), 77 per cent Scheduled Tribes (ST), 83 per cent Scheduled Castes and 65 per cent Muslims believe that India’s population is becoming uncontrollable.