Meira Kumar Oppn pick for president

NEW TWIST Candidature may put Nitish Kumar in tight spot

The opposition parties on Thursday chose former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar as their candidate to take on National Democratic Alliance’s presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind for the next month’s election.

Born in Bihar’s Arrah district, Meira Kumar is the daughter of prominent Dalit leader and former deputy prime minister Jagjivan Ram, and freedom fighter, Indrani Devi.

Meira Kumar, like Kovind, belongs to the Scheduled Caste.

In 2004, Meira Kumar was inducted into the Manmohan Singh cabinet, as minister of social justice and empowerment, in the Congress-led UPA government. She then assumed charge as the Union minister for water resources in the UPA government in 2009

Meira Kumar was elected

Inducted into the Manmohan Singh cabinet as minister of social justice and empowerment

Assumed charge as the Union minister for water resources, later elected as

Lok Sabha Speaker

Speaker of Lok Sabha in 2009, becoming the first woman speaker of the country. She served as the speaker till 2014.

The candidature of Meira Kumar, a Dalit leader from Bihar, could put JD(U)’s Nitish Kumar in a spot after his party announced on Wednesday that they would support BJP’s candidate Ram Nath Kovind.

The Bihar chief minister, who skipped the opposition meeting on Thursday, may now have to

find a justification to back Kovind, who is from Uttar Pradesh , and not the former Lok Sabha Speaker.

Kovind’s candidature was seen as a masterstroke by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as it created a divide in the opposition that was trying to put up a consensus candidate.

Kovind was expected to have a smooth ride and the only debate now is about the former Bihar governor’s victory margin.