Flanked by Modi and Shah, Kovind files his nomination
New Delhi National Democratic Alliance presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind filed his nomination papers at the Parliament house on Friday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi , party president Amit Shah and veteran leader L K Advani and several NDA leaders were present.
The nomination papers were submitted to Anoop Mishra, the secretary general of the Lok Sabha and returning officer for the presidential elections. Among the NDA leaders present were chief ministers Chandrababu Naidu of Andhra Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath of Uttar Pradesh and K Chandrashekar Rao of Telangana. Akali leader Parkash Singh Badal was also present.
The opposition candidate Meira Kumar is yet to file her papers the last date for which is June 28.
Following the filing of his nomination, Ram Nath Kovind will travel across India to meet chief ministers of different states to seek support. He is also likely to make appeals to lawmakers. He is pitted in the election, which is planned for next month, against the former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, who has been fielded by the Congress and 16 other opposition parties.
Kovind will leave no stone unturned in reaching out to different parties, but the ruling NDA has already secured a comfortable majority.
Backed by parties like AIADMK, BJD, JD(U), TRS and YRS Congress, the NDA has secured 682,722 out of 10,98,903 votes in the electoral college.
Kumar has an uphill task: the Opposition has just 378458 votes, far short of the majority mark of 5,49,452.