The Congress-led opposition’s presidential nominee Meira Kumar on Sunday said that her fight is not against NDA presidential candidate Ramnath Kovind but against Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) ideology.
“I respect Kovind. My fight is not against him but the ideology," Kumar said, while talking to the mediapersons here. She was in the city on Sunday to seek support from Congress MPs and MlAs of Haryana and Punjab for July 17 presidential polls. The former lok Sabha Speaker said that it hurts her to know that a 'modern' India is presently talking only about caste, just because two Dalits have stood for the presidential elections.
She added that in previous polls, nobody talked about the caste of presidential nominees but about their qualities, talent and achievements. Now when Kovind and I have stood for the elections, people are talking about nothing else but caste, added Meira Kumar.
Meira Kumar, along with Kovind, has been campaigning for the upcoming presidential polls.
In the 90-member Haryana assembly, the Congress has 17 members. Congress has two Rajya Sabha members and one lok Sabha MP from Haryana.
The party has 77 MlAs in the 117-member Punjab assembly. While Congress has four MPs in lok Sabha, there are three party MPs in Rajya Sabha from Punjab.
Earlier on June 29, Kovind had visited Chandigarh to seek support in Punjab and Haryana. Haryana’s main opposition party, Indian National lok Dal had also extended its support to Kovind during his visit to the city.