Presidential Elections: It’s Dalit-Vs-Dalit Fight

Mumbai Mirror

New Delhi: The Opposition parties on Thursday unanimously chose to field former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar against NDA’s Ram Nath Kovind in the July 17 Presidential polls, thus making it a Dalit vs Dalit contest.

 

Announcing the candidature of Kumar, whose father, ex-deputy prime minister Jagjivan Ram, was often hailed as one of the tallest Dalit leaders in the country, Congress President Sonia Gandhi said, “17 Opposition leaders have decided to jointly field Meira Kumar. We do hope other Opposition parties will join us.”

NCP Chief Sharad Pawar told the gathering that in his entire political career, he had never heard the name of BJP’s Presidential candidate Kovind. “I was told that he is a lawyer, so I called Satish Mishra (BSP). He too, despite his long years in Uttar Pradesh politics, could not recall him,” Pawar said.

 

Interestingly, Pawar only mentioned three probable candidates for the Presidential polls — former Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, former Bombay University vice chancellor Bhalchandra Mungerkar and Meira Kumar — at the meeting. He spoke at length about the first two, enumerating their achievements and political career.

 

RJD Chief Lalu Prasad, who rushed from Ranchi after a court hearing, said that being a Bihari, his choice was Ram’s daughter Kumar.

 

Trinamool Congress also wanted the former Speaker. “Two women have come together to project a third woman as India’s President,” a senior TMC leader said.

 

Yechury was the only one to mention Prakash Ambedkar’s name. He also expressed regret at the missed opportunity of pre-empting the government announcement. After the meeting, Lalu said Nitish Kumar, whose party JD (U) has decided to support Kovind, had taken a wrong decision.