PREZ POLLS: MEIRA FILES NOMINATION
NEW DELHI: Opposition presidential candidate Meira Kumar on Wednesday filed her nomination in the presence of top Congress and other opposition leaders and said it marked the beginning of her "fight of ideology".
The result for the race to the Raisina Hills may have been written boldly on the wall for everyone to see but the UPA made it easier to read, thanks to its bad planning of the event when the opposition’s joint candidate Meira Kumar filed her nominations papers on Wednesday afternoon in Parliament which she had ruled as Speaker for five years.
Although she has been supported by 17 national and regional parties, chiefs of many of them such as BSP, SP, TMC and RJD were conspicuous by their absence when it mattered the most. Mayawati, Mulayam Singh and Akhilesh Yadav, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee and Lalu Yadav were among the prominent absentees, besides Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi who is on a foreign tour to an undisclosed location for the past 10 days or more.
Accompanied by Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan singh and Sharad Pawar, Kumar filed papers around 11.30 am in what was seen to be quite a low-key affair. Soon after filing her papers, she went into Sonia Gandhi’s office inside the Parliament and remained there for about 30 minutes. After that she came out and almost left Parliament premises before she was stopped midway by a party office-bearer for a formal interaction with the waiting media as arrangements had been made there near Gandhi' famous statue but she was not aware of it.
Speaking to media, Kumar said her fight against Kovind was for principles and that it was an ideological battle. She refused to be drawn into a battle between two Dalits. “Free speech, freedom of individuals and liberty to think was the main thrust of the Constitution which she would uphold as the President, if she won”, she said. The former Speaker said that violence against Dalits had increased in the country and she would use all her might to stop it.