India to get head of state from lowest caste

NEW DELHI, July15 (AFP) - India's next president will emerge from the Dalit caste -- a community so marginalised they were once known as “untouchables” -- with the victory of the ruling party candidate set to strengthen PM Narendra Modi's grip on power. Ram Nath Kovind, 71, is hot favourite to be elected Monday by national and state lawmakers to become titular head- of- state as the candidate of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

It will be the second time, after President K.R. Narayanan, who served from 1997 to 2002, that a member of the downtrodden caste has assumed the post. The result will be announced Thursday.

For Modi, with one eye on re- election in 2019, it will send an important message to a key, long disdained electoral group. Dalits, who number around 200 million, are among the poorest communities in India and have traditionally been relegated to activities on the margins of society. Despite legal protection, discrimination is rife and Dalits are routinely denied access to education and other opportunities.

Analysts say Modi can win political capital by helping BJP politician Kovind to win the contest against opposition nominee Meira Kumar, also a Dalit. Kumar, daughter of freedom fighter Babu Jagjivan Ram, was a diplomat before entering politics and India's first woman speaker, but the electoral college numbers are heavily tilted against her.

“Every (Indian) politician would want support from this 16 percent voting bloc for any election,” Vimal Thorat, an activist and convenor of the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights, told AFP.

Dalit support is even more important for the BJP as it has mostly been shunned by Muslims, who make up about 14 percent of the 1.3 billion population.