Bihar governor Kovind is BJP’s pick for president
Opposition likely to name candidate but numbers are on BJP’s side
NEW DELHI: Bihar governor and Dalit leader Ram Nath Kovind is the BJP’s choice for India’s next President, the party announced on Monday, in a surprise pick apparently aimed at reaching out to the country’s backward and marginalised communities.
Kovind, 71, is expected to win the July 17 presidential polls and succeed Pranab Mukherjee as India’s head of state, a largely ceremonial figure elected by parliamentarians and state legislators (see graphic).
“Ram Nath Kovind has always fought for the betterment of the Dalits and other backward castes,” Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah said at a press conference.
“The BJP... hopes that a person born in a poor family of low-caste Dalit community will be a consensus candidate for the president’s post,” he added.
Kovind, who arrived in Delhi in the evening, said he will seek support of all MPs and MLAs.
“I think I will have the support and blessings of every citizen of India,” he told reporters before meeting the BJP president.
Though the BJP was expected to name a Dalit, Kovind’s candidature came as a surprise because of his relative anonymity in the country’s mainstream politics. However, the Congress had sprung a similar surprise in 2007 by nominating Pratibha Patil, who became India’s 12th President.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Kovind “will make an exceptional President”.
Modi also called up his predecessor Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi to seek support for Kovind, a former lawyer who was appointed Bihar governor in 2015. However, some Opposition parties including the Congress and the Left indicated they were bracing for a contest.
“Congress does not want to comment on this issue as we want to take a unanimous decision with all other opposition parties on the presidential elections,” senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said, even as he accused the BJP of taking a “unilateral decision”.
: Hours after the BJP announced Bihar governor Ram Nath Kovind as its Presidential candidate, Gopalkrishna Gandhi – seen as the Left’s choice for the top post— seemed to take himself out of contention.
While the Opposition mounted an attack on the ruling BJP, accusing it of not consulting them before nominating Kovind, Gopalkrishna Gandhi thanked “all those who wanted to see me contest the election and perchance to win it”. Talking to Hindustan Times, he said that his supporters trust had been “no less fulfilling than a realisation of their wish would have been”.
The Opposition will meet on June 22, a day before Kovind files his nomination to the Lok Sabha secretary general, to decide the next course of action.
“Congress does not want to comment on NDA’s candidate. We want to take a unanimous decision with other opposition parties. The final call will be taken on June 22,” leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, said.
Although the Opposition claimed that the BJP ‘unilaterally’ took a call on Kovind’s candidature, Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu maintained that the Bihar governor was nominated after keeping in mind the suggestions of ‘some Opposition parties’.
Naidu indicated that the BJP had opted for a person with a clean image, who belonged to a weaker section of the country.
Azad, however, said the atrocities on Dalits in Saharanpur and other areas are a clear example that minorities, backwards and Dalits were not “priorities” for the BJP.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee suggested that foreign minister Sushma Swaraj or BJP patriarch LK Advani could have been a better Presidential candidate.
“There are other big Dalit leaders in the country. Just because he (Kovind) was a leader of the BJP’s Dalit Morcha, they have nominated him,” she said and added that in order to support someone, “we must know the person”.
However, there are signs that all the opposition parties might not share the same views when it comes to Kovind’s nomination. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati said she can’t take a “negative” stand on a dalit candidate.
“Our stand will be positive provided the opposition does not field any Dalit for the top post,” she said.
The Left, which has been backing Gopalkrishna Gandhi’s candidature, was in no mood to quit without a fight. “There will be a contest,” Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury told Hindustan Times.
On his part, Gopalkrishna Gandhi said he hoped for “the best thing” to happen for India.
“May the one chosen by destiny to occupy the onerous office this year bring to it something of Rajen babu’s sagacity, Dr Radhakrishnan’s wisdom and Zakir sahib’s nobility, and a large measure of the alert independent-mindedness of President R Narayanan,” he said.
When asked if he is opting out of the contest, Gandhi replied, “I had never entered a contest as no name whether mine or anyone else’s had been decided upon.”
Former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar is also seen as a possible Opposition Presidential candidate