SURPRISE ELEMENT

PM Modi’s surprise choice is a man for all reasons. The Opposition is left in disarray

Who is Ramnath Kovind, the man NDA has chosen as its presidential candidate?

ixty kilometres from Kanpur Dehat district, the road winds its way through a thick canopy of trees. Once the lair of dreaded dacoits, it now leads to a sleepy little village of ten thousand souls, Paraunkh. On June 19, the villagers there gathered under the shade of an ancient pipal tree, to celebrate the stardom of one of their own: Ram Nath Kovind. They clapped, danced, pounded dholaks and harmoniums, and sang songs of joy: “Mere gaon main khushiyan chhayi, hum dete hain Modiji ko badhai (Happiness has come home, thank you Prime Minister Narendra Modi).”

On July 26, the first president from the saf-

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Ram Nath Kovind, 71. Born into the Dalit weaver caste of Koris in village Paraunkh, Kanpur Dehat district, UP. Father, Maikulal Kori, ran a grocery store. Did higher studies in Kanpur; started practice as an advocate in Delhi

In the early 1970s, became personal assistant to former PM Morarji Desai. In 1991, joined the BJP; was Rajya Sabha MP from UP twice, between 1994 and 2006; was also chief of the BJP Dalit Morcha. Said to be close to both Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah

He’s not an RSS insider, has never attended an RSS shakha, but is very close to senior leaders. Joint general secretary in-charge of RSS-BJP coordination Krishnagopal backed him as presidential nominee. Earlier, his active participation in RSS-related social activities had impressed the Sangh parivar. The reward: Bihar governorship

Kovind is a voracious reader, likes to spend time with books, watching television only for the news. He is also a vegetarian, preferring south Indian breakfast and north Indian meals. Father of a son, Prashant, and a daughter, Swati, Kovind and his wife Savita prefer to live simple, spartan lives

CAPITAL GREETINGS

PM Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah with the NDA presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind fron brigade will step into the country’s most elite address, Rashtrapati Bhavan. For the first time in history—with a Lok Sabha majority, sweeping victories in key assembly elections and a little help from allies—the NDA will have the numbers to get a president it wants. For the last two months, the nation has raised a storm of words and scuttlebutt: who will be the next president of India? With NDA nominating Ram Nath Kovind as its choice on June 19, the answer at last is blowing in the wind.

KOVIND, WHO?

The surprise is total. Who is Ram Nath Kovind? Even West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, never at a loss for words, tossed her head and announced: “Ami chini na (I don’t know him).” Social media has exploded. Hashtag #RamnathKovind is still trending days after the announcement. BJP ministers are tweeting about what a “genial, soft-spoken, well-read & articulate” man the governor of Bihar is, what a “perfect gentleman”. Leaders in the Opposition, jolted out of their equilibrium, are swinging between “commitment of support”, “contest is on the cards” and a meeting on June 22, at 4.30 pm, in the Parliament Library, to take a final call.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi finally came to the rescue. Through a series of Twitter posts, he explained who Kovind is and why he would “make an exceptional President”: “Shri Ram Nath Kovind, a farmer’s son, comes from a humble background. He devoted his life to public service & worked for poor & marginalised.” A minute later, another: “With his illustrious background in the legal arena, Shri Kovind’s knowledge and understanding of the Constitution will benefit the nation.” Soon, yet another tweet came on its heels: “I am sure Shri Ram Nath Kovind will make an exceptional President & continue to be a strong voice for the poor, downtrodden & marginalised.”

SECRET MISSION

PM Modi and BJP president Amit Shah apparently zeroed in on Kovind around the first week of June. But it was a secret wrapped in silence, according to BJP insiders. Kovind has confided to one of his confidantes in Uttarakhand that he himself was not aware of his candidature till June 17. It was such a well-guarded secret that when a source close to Shah asked him on May 30 whether Union minister Thawar Chand Gehlot was to be the NDA candidate, he was told: “Someone like him.” Most ministers of the Modi cabinet remained in the dark. One of the first to get a whiff, around June 11, was Union minister Nitin Gadkari. That, too, because Shah had asked for some inputs from him.

It’s Shah who first spotted Kovind during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The party needed someone like him—a Kori Dalit, a caste group that forms the biggest Dalit grouping in Uttar Pradesh after Jatavs and Passis—to tackle Mayawati, to cobble together a non-Jatav Dalit alliance in UP after the BJP’s shock defeat in the 2012 assembly polls. Although he was then the BJP’s Dalit Morcha national president, he accepted the state-level post of BJP general secretary in UP without demur. It happened again, when Kovind wanted to contest the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and Shah directed him to tackle the Dalit challenge. Kovind again accepted the decision

gracefully. His regard for party discipline and the decisions of senior leaders, apparently, endeared him to Shah.

Those who picked up the clues may remember the PM’s speeches at the peak of the Bihar assembly election campaign in 2015. “Shriman Ram Nath Kovindji has given his all to the welfare of the oppressed, the dispossessed, the Dalit, the backward and the extremely backward, all his life….” When PM Modi spoke in exalted terms of the newly-appointed state governor, on August 18, 2015, in Saharsa, nobody thought much of it. Two years later, Kovind is running for the top post of the country, with the firm support of his patron, the Prime Minister of India. “His contribution to the RSS ideology, his stature as a leader, his thorough knowledge of the Constitution and command over the English language impressed the PM and clinched it in his favour,” says a BJP member.

A DALIT, FIRST

It’s not easy being a Dalit in a village dominated by Brahmins and Thakurs. A weaver by caste, Kovind’s family did not own any land. Father Maikulal Kori eked out a living for his family with nine children by running a small grocery store. The children learnt their first lessons under the old pipal tree. “Ram Nath was very sharp, learnt things in no time and never forgot,” says his old classmate Rajkishor Singh. High school meant an eight-kilometre walk everyday to another village. Ram Nath left for Kanpur to pursue higher studies and law. In 1970, he left for Delhi to practise as an advocate. By the late 1970s, he had become the personal assistant to former prime minister Morarji Desai. In 1991, he joined the BJP, and by 1994 he had become a Rajya Sabha MP.

It’s then that he developed his village into a ‘model village’, using MP funds: roads were paved, a high school was opened for girls, so was a State Bank of India branch, and every house was set up with electricity meters. Ask anyone and they will show you the way to the family stead—partly in ruins and partly a community centre, constructed by Kovind during his tenure as Rajya Sabha MP. “The services are free for everyone in the village,” says Anil Kumar, Kovind’s nephew. “Like our father, Ram is very spiritual,” says elder brother, Pyarelal, “he learnt to recite the Ramayana and the Gita at just age 15.” It wasn’t just his village, Kovind contributed to the development of Kanpur city too as MP, developing stretches of barren land into some of the best places to live in—from Indira Nagar near the IIT to Maharishi Dayanand Vihar in Kalyanpur—with well-tiled, shining roads, trees and steel chairs for the elderly to rest.

IDENTITY POLITICS

This is not the first time Kovind—a former BJP national spokesperson, two-term Rajya Sabha MP, a former chief of the BJP’s SC/ ST Morcha (1998-2002) and Supreme Court lawyer—has proved to be a good fit in the BJP’s Dalit scheme of things. Kovind’s is a classic story of Dalit empowerment, one that is closely linked to the identity politics of the Hindi heartland, especially at a time of simmering caste violence in the state (Saharanpur especially), the rise of the fledgling Bhim Army and escalating Dalit protests against upper-caste atrocities after the elevation of Yogi Adityanath, a Thakur, as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. There is also the issue of cow vigilantism and the