Meira, Dalit, to take on Kovind
NCP’s support comes after much dithering
In a Dalit versus Dalit contest, former Lok Sabha Speaker and onetime diplomat Meira Kumar, daughter of the late Scheduled Caste icon Babu Jagjivan Ram, will take on the NDA’s Ram Nath Kovind in next month’s presidential election, a 17-party conglomerate of Opposition parties decided Thursday.
The high point of the unfolding drama was Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar, who decided to play along with the Opposition bloc after dithering till the last moment and agreed only after much persuasion by senior leaders.
“Seventeen Opposition parties have together decided to jointly field Ms Meira Kumar,” Congress president Sonia Gandhi said after a one-and-a-halfhour-long meeting.
Mrs Gandhi was flanked SREEPARNA CHAKRABARTY | DC NEW DELHI, JUNE 22 Meira Kumar was a foreign service officer, a five-term MP and a Cabinet minister. She was the first woman Speaker of Lok Sabha. by former PM Manmohan Singh and Mr Pawar, who held several meetings within his party as well as with Congress troubleshooters Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ahmed Patel, and CPM’s Sitaram Yechury.
Sources said though Mr Pawar had agreed to be on the Opposition side in the presidential battle, he had wanted the decision to announce the name of the candidate to be deferred by at least a day.
In a Dalit versus Dalit contest, former Lok Sabha Speaker and onetime diplomat Meira Kumar, daughter of the late Scheduled Caste icon Babu Jagjivan Ram, will take on the NDA’s Ram Nath Kovind in next month’s presidential election, a 17-party conglomerate of Opposition parties decided Thursday.
Congress troubleshooters rushed to NCP leader Sharad Pawar’s residence to convince him of going ahead and announcing the name on Thursday itself.
The leaders also called in CPM leader Sitaram Yechury to convince Mr Pawar and a luncheon meeting was held.
The NCP chief is understood to have told the leaders he wanted to wait for a farmers’ meeting with the Maharashtra government on Friday. The Congress and the Left, however, still smarting under JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar’s turnaround, convinced him to agree to announce the Chennai, June 22: The AIADMK’s rival Puratchi Thalaivi Amma faction led by former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam on Thursday extended its support for NDA’s presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind, exuding confidence that he will work as a “good administrator.”
Mr Panneerselvam said BJP national president Amit Shah had sought support from him for Kovind and the matter was discussed with senior functionaries of the name on Thursday itself. A top source said it was pointed out to Mr Pawar that the presidential polls were a litmus test for a larger alliance ahead of the 2019 general election.
Interestingly, Mr Pawar as well as JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar were seen as contenders for the leadership of a “Mahag-athbandhan” against the Narendra Modi-led BJP.
Now, with Mr Kumar’s exit from the Opposition camp in the coming presidential polls, Mr Pawar’s position becomes stronger in such a possible alliance. RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, Mr Kumar’s ally in Bihar, faction today, besides the MPs and the MLAs owing allegiance to him.
“Based on that and heeding BJP president Shah's request, it has been unanimously decided to back Kovind,” he told reporters here.
Later, Mr Shah thanked Panneerselvam for extending his faction’s support to Kovind.
The BJP president spoke to Panneerselvam over phone and thanked him, said a release from the faction. In his media interaction, Paneerselvam said the JD(U) was committing a “historical” blunder and urged the Bihar CM to reconsider his decision on backing Mr Kovind. Earlier, Mrs Gandhi had also expressed a similar view. “We do hope that other parties also join us,” she said when asked about the JD(U) stand.
A JD(U) spokesman, however, said, “Our decision to support Kovind remains unchanged. It was a decision taken on merit after due application of mind.” Ms Kumar’s candidature will put pressure on the Bihar Chief Minister as she belongs to his state and is a “mahadalit”. said an “opportunity” has been provided for a member of the dalit community to be elected to the president's office, and “for providing that opportunity (to Kovind), we have decided to support him.”
Asked if the faction, which has 12 MPs and an equal number of MLAs, was supporting Mr Kovind since he hailed from the dalit group, Mr Panneerselvam said the presidential nominee has been a MP twice, and was, therefore, “experienced.” Lucknow, June 22: BSP supremo Mayawati on Thursday backed the Opposition’s candidate Meira Kumar for the President’s post, while taking exception to NDA nominee Ram Nath Kovind’s association with the “narrow ideologies” of the BJP and the RSS.
“The Opposition’s nominee for President’s post Meira Kumar is more capable and popular than the NDA candidate,” she said moments after Kumar’s candidature was announced.
“BSP will support Meira Kumar in the presidential election,” she declared.
Mayawati said Kovind had been associated with the “narrow ideologies” of the BJP and the RSS right from the beginning.
“Hence, I do not subscribe to his political background,” she said in a statement issued here.
“In the new circumstances, after comparing the qualities of the two candidates it is clear that UPA candidate Meria Kumar is more capable and popular than the NDA nominee. Hence, our party declares support to Meira Kumar for the presidential poll,” she said.
The Opposition on Thursday unanimously decided to field Kumar, a dalit, as its joint candidate for the presidential election against Kovind, with 17 parties supporting the former Lok Sabha speaker’s candidature.