Kovind is President, Meira asks him to uphold Constitution

Ram Nath Kovind, the 71-year-old former Bihar Governor, MP and lawyer, was on Thursday elected India’s 14th President, after results showed him securing about 65.65 per cent of the Electoral College votes, and defeating his rival Meira Kumar, who polled 34.35 per cent vote.

With his election, Kovind becomes the second Dalit and the first activist from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP’s ideological mentor, to hold the country’s highest office.

However, the BJP did not meet its expectations of gaining 70 per cent of votes of the Electoral College, which comprises elected members of Parliament and the State Legislative Assemblies. Of the 4,851 votes polled, Kovind secured 2,930 while Kumar got 1,844.

The BJP had estimated that it would get 527 of the 768 votes of MPs, which carry a value of 708 per each vote. Kovind got 522 votes and Kumar got 225. One reason for the BJP not meeting its target is said to be the high number of invalid votes — 21.

In Uttar Pradesh, Kovind’s home State, where the value of vote is the highest for Legislative Assemblies, the President-designate got 335 votes. In Bihar, from where Kumar hails, Kovind got 130 votes and Meira got 109.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the President-designate on his victory. “Congratulations to Shri Ram Nath Kovind Ji on being elected the President of India! Best wishes for a fruitful & inspiring tenure,” Modi said.

An emotional Kovind told reporters soon after the announcement of results that he never aspired to be the President. “My win is a message to those discharging their duties with integrity. My election as the President is an evidence of the greatness of Indian democracy,” he said.

His rival Kumar, who is a former Speaker, said her fight for the oppressed and the marginalised would continue. She urged Kovind to uphold the the Constitution in letter and spirit. BJP chief Amit Shah said Kovind’s was a “victory for the poor, downtrodden and marginalised and their aspirations”.

By ensuring the election of Kovind, a Dalit from UP, the BJP has once again underlined its aggressive strategy to woo the community, especially in the Hindi heartland. The move to field a non-controversial, low-profile leader from UP has silenced criticism about the election of an RSS apparatchik to the highest office in India, although Kovind has been a long-time swayamsevak.

At a time when the BJP is facing a strong Dalit upsurge in Uttar Pradesh, with a militant Bhim Army threatening to shatter the party’s carefully planned outreach to the community, the election of Kovind, who is a Kori, the third-largest Dalit community after Jatavs and Pasis, sends a powerful political signal.

A weakened Mayawati’s decision to resign her seat in Rajya Sabha and plunge herself headlong into political mobilisation is a pointer to her vulnerability and the superiority of the BJP’s political strategy. The party’s move to wean away castes among Dalits other than Jatavs, the community to which Mayawati belongs, paid dividends in the UP Assembly elections, and the BSP chief would be ill-advised to oppose the candidature of a Kori from Kanpur Rural in the Presidential elections.

The election also underlined inherent fragility in the Opposition unity. While JD(U) leader and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar spurned the Opposition alliance, even the Biju Janata Dal favoured Kovind.