Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Samajwadi Party veteran Mulayam Singh may have disturbed Opposition unity with their support for the BJP’s Presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind, but the Congress, Trinamool Congress and Left parties seemed in no mood to relent.
The trio appear determined to put up a candidate, and a handful of names are doing the rounds. These include former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar; BR Ambedkar’s grandson and Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar; former Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, and Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson and scholar Gopalkrishna Gandhi. A final call on the matter is likely to be taken at a meeting of Opposition parties on Thursday.
However, a senior source in the Opposition told
Meanwhile, Kovind resigned as Bihar Governor on Tuesday. He will be filing his nomination on June 23.
Odisha’s ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) is now firmly with the BJP, with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announcing his support for Kovind late on Monday night. With this, the BJD becomes the fourth non-NDA party to back the BJP’s nominee, joining the ranks of Telangana’s ruling TRS, Andhra Pradesh’s principal Opposition party, the YSR Congress, and Tamil Nadu’s ruling AIADMK.
This adds 2.99 per cent to the NDA’s kitty of 47.5 per cent of the pool of 10.99 lakh electors. The YSRC has nearly two per cent of the votes and the TRS has 1.6 per cent. The AIADMK holds about 5.4 per cent of the value of votes. This gives the NDA a clear majority in case of a contest.
Divided OppositionOpposition unity seemed shaken on Tuesday with Nitish Kumar, who is also the JD(U) President, calling a meeting of his party to discuss the issue. Kumar has already said that he is “personally” supportive of Kovind’s candidature. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has not made its support clear so far, but party supremo Mayawati has welcomed Kovind’s candidature. The SP too seemed like a house divided, with Mulayam Singh saying that he has “good relations” with Kovind, and that the BJP had made “the right choice”.