India goes to polls for next president

Certain to come from ‘ untouchable’ caste to strengthen Modi’s power

Indian lawmakers voted Monday for a new president certain to come from the bottom of the Hindu caste system, in an election seen as strengthening Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s grip on power.

Some 4,900 legislators nationwide voted in what Modi termed a “historic” election to choose the titular head of state.

Ram Nath Kovind, the candidate of Modi’s right- wing Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) and a former lawyer and state governor from the Dalit community, is certain to win.

His main rival is Meira Kumar, the nominee of the Congress- led opposition and also a Dalit.

But the BJP, which won a landslide in a general election in 2014, has for the first time assembled enough electoral college votes across the country to push through its presidential candidate. Congress has traditionally dominated the post.

“There is no rocket science, Ram Nath Kovind will win today,” Praful Patel, a leader of the small opposition Nationalist Congress Party, conceded as he cast his vote.

Modi was among the first to vote, using a specially approved violet ink pen. The election commission barred the use of personal pens to ensure clean voting.

The result will be announced Thursday.

“The presidential poll this time is historic. Probably for the first time no party has made any undignified or unwarranted comment on the rival candidate,” Modi tweeted on the eve of the poll.

“Every political party has kept in mind the dignity of this election.”

India’s prime minister wields executive power, but the president can send back some parliamentary bills for reconsideration and also plays a guiding role in the process of forming governments.

Analysts said the election of Kovind, 71, would help Modi tighten his grip on power and accrue political capital by sending an important message to the Dalits, a long- disdained electoral group once known as “untouchables.”

Dalits, who number around 200 million in the nation of 1.3 billion, are among India’s poorest communities and relegated to the margins of society.

Despite legal protection, discrimination is rife and Dalits are routinely denied access to education and other advancement opportunities.