BJP strategists put Kovind in driver’s seat
National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate Ramnath Kovind seems to be cruising towards a convincing victory in the presidential election, to be held on Monday.
The ruling side expects Kovind to garner about 70% or more of the electoral college, comprising 4,986 voters.
“We have the support of 21 chief ministers and over 30 political parties,” BJP general secretary Bhupendra Yadav, who is also acting as Kovind’s campaign manager, told HT.
Though the NDA was assured of victory due to its majority in the Lok Sabha and dominance in over 17 states, BJP strategists worked overtime to widen the margin over UPA candidate Meira Kumar.
A team of three senior ministers – Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and M Venkaiah Naidu – reached out to Opposition parties and NDA leaders to garner support for Kovind. The BJP received a shot in the arm when Jaitley managed to convince Nitish Kumar, JD(U) leader and CM of Bihar, to abandon the Opposition and back the NDA nominee.
“Kovind was a good choice. His conduct as Bihar governor was graceful,” said JD(U) leader KC Tyagi.
The BJP’s unapologetic flaunting of Kovind’s Dalit identity also helped bring many nonNDA players to its side. Support poured in from Odisha’s BJD, both factions of the Tamil Nadubased AIADMK, Telangana Rashtra Samiti of K Chandrasekhar Rao and Indian National Lok Dal of Om Prakash Chautala.
Assigning the task of finding outside support in the northeast to Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma also paid off. Six Tripura MLAs of the TMC have decided to go with Kovind, despite party chief Mamata Banerjee pitching for Kumar.
BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and Uttar Pradesh minister Sidharth Nath Singh are also learnt to have reached out to TMC leaders in Bengal, besides Congress legislators from Gujarat and Karnataka, for support.