The Opposition parties on Thursday opened the front for a direct contest for the next month’s Presidential polls by nominating former lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, a Dalit, to take on NDA’s Ram Nath Kovind. Kumar, a former diplomat and daughter of the late Dalit icon Jagjivan Ram, was the unanimous choice of the 17 Opposition parties that met on Thursday.
Though the numbers game is heavily stalked against Meria Kumar, the majority of Opposition parties see the contest for the top constitutional post an “ideological battle” that has to be fought.
“We have decided to field Meira Kumar for the presidential election... We do hope that other parties also join us,” said Congress president Sonia Gandhi. BSP chief Mayawati said Meira Kumar is more capable and more popular than NDA’s candidate.
Mayawati had on Monday said that her party was positive about the NDA nominee Kovind but wished the ruling alliance had named a non-political Dalit candidate for the top post.
Asked to comment on Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), which is supporting Kovind and stayed out of the meeting, Sonia said, “We do hope that other Opposition parties join us.” She added that she was “not upset with anybody”. The JD(U)’s surprise decision to back Kovind had led to cracks in the Opposition camp as JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar was the one who had initiated the process for a joint Opposition strategy on the issue.
RJD president lalu Prasad said he would meet Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in a bid to make him change his mind about supporting Kovind.
“There was no threat to the coalition Government in Bihar. I will meet Nitish Kumar and will continue to urge him to change his decision of supporting the NDA candidate,” lalu said after attending the Opposition meeting.
However, dashing the Opposition’s hope, the JD(U) rejected lalu Prasad’s request to reconsider its support to the NDA’s presidential nominee, saying its stand is based on merit and it will stick it.
“Our decision to support Kovind remains unchanged. It was a decision taken on merit after due application of mind and full consultation within the party... We will stick to his (Nitish) choice,” JD(U) spokesperson Pavan Kumar Varma said.
Defending Nitish against his decision to not go with other Opposition parties on their presidential candidate, the former Rajya Sabha member stressed on the fact that Nitish had broken ranks with the NDA, of which he was a member then, and supported the UPA’s candidate Pranab Mukherjee in 2012.
The Opposition’s move to field Meira Kumar makes it a Dalit vs Dalit presidential polls. While Kovind is a former Governor from Bihar, Meira hails from the State and has represented in the lok Sabha on many occasion.
Prominent among those who attended the meeting held in the Parliament House library were the Congress president, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and senior party leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge and Ahmed Patel, besides NCP’s Sharad Pawar and RJD’s lalu Prasad. left leaders Sitaram Yechury and D Raja, DMK’s Kanimozhi and National Conference’s Omar Abdullah, RlD chief Ajit Singh also attended the meeting.
Though Trinamool Congress’ Mamata Banerjee, BSP’s Mayawati and SP’s Akhilesh Yadav, who were present at the last Opposition meeting held on May 26, were missing, their representatives were there.
While Derek O’ Brien represented the Trinamool, the SP sent Ramgopal Yadav and the BSP Satish Mishra. Other parties represented at the meeting included JD-S, RSP, JMM, Kerala Congress, IUMl and the AIUDF of Assam.