The ruling BJP is looking to mop up “conscience votes” across party lines for its Presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind.
Kovind will be travelling to Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and the North East till July 8.
During his travels, he hopes to enlist the support of independent legislators, as well as those belonging to the Opposition camp.
Meanwhile, six MLAs of the Opposition Trinamool Congress in Tripura have backed Kovind. They are scheduled to meet Kovind in Guwahati.
The North-East focus Party General Secretary Ram Madhav and pointman for the North-East, the all-powerful Himanta Biswa Sarma, have lined up meetings for Kovind between July 6 and 7.
These are aimed at gathering support from independents as well as Opposition party legislators from States such as Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Tripura where the BJP has no Assembly representatives.
For the purpose, Kovind will,on July 6, travel to Assam with Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, and spend the next two days in neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh. The TMC MLAs from Tripura will be meeting Kovind and his entourage in Guwahati as will legislators from Meghalaya and Mizoram. After the staying the night in Guwahati, Kovind is also expected to travel to Nagaland and Manipur.
On Tuesday, the BJP’s Presidential candidate will embark on a two-day tour to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana with Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu and senior BJP leader Muralidhar Rao and MP L Ganesan. He is scheduled to meet his own party legislators and MLAs from TDP and TRS separately in Hyderabad. The same afternoon, he travels to Vijayawada for another set of meetings, which includes that with members of the YSR Congress.
He flies to Karnataka on July 5 with Social Justice Minister Thawarchand Gehlot to appeal to the independents. On July 8, after his tour to the North East, Kovind will be in Madhya Pradesh with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and party MP Vinay Sahastrabudhe.
During similar travels, Kovind has managed to get support from two independent MLAs in Uttarakhand, one in Jammu and Kashmir, one in Karnataka and the support of smaller parties such as NR Congress in Puducherry and the Indian National Lok Dal in Haryana.