Meira Kumar, former Lok Sabha speaker has been announced as opposition’s candidate for the post of Indian President. This announcement was made after the opposition parties met for a discussion yesterday in New Delhi. Meira Kumar will compete with Ram Nath Kovind to become the president.
The opposition camp has 17 parties, known as secular group. It includes the likes of BSP, SP, NCP, DMK and JD(S). JD(U), led by Sharad Yadav was considered to be another influential party within the opposition camp, however, Nitish Kumar has announced to support Ram Nath Kovind in these elections.
The meeting of opposition party leaders asked only for a short amount of time. All the leaders announced their support to the candidate selected by Congress. Sonia Gandhi proposed the name of Meira Kumar, which was unanimously accepted by all the leaders present there.
With Meira Kumar being the candidate, the competition is now Dalit-vs-dalit, a factor that both the camps will look to utilise in their campaigns. Also, now that the candidates are finalised, the parties will try to gather more and more support before the Election Day. Though BJP has over 60% of the total votes and it will get its candidate elected pretty easily, Congress and the opposition camp has a point to prove and they will not shy away from employing their best strategies in order to give a tough competition to Ram Nath Kovind on 17th July.