The term of present President Pranab Mukherjee ends on 24 July, the elections for the next President will be held on 17 July and the results will be announced on 20 July. The last date to file the nominations for the presidential polls is 28 June.
NDA selected candidate, Ram Nath Kovind will be filing the nomination today, before Prime Minister Narendra Modi leaves for his US tour in a few days. 71 year old, Ram Nath Kovind was the Governor of Bihar before he was chosen as a candidate by the ruling party. Kovind is a dalit leader and has held various organisational positions in the BJP.
Though his name was not in the list of possible candidates being discussed earlier amongst the political parties, announcing Ram Nath as the NDA candidate is being regarded as a masterstroke by BJP, as Kovind is a dalit leader and this will help BJP to woo the dalit votes during the general elections due in 2019. He has a clean reputation and has not been involved in any controversy in his political career of 26 years.
Ram Nath Kovind will be filing his nominations in the presence of Narendra Modi, BJP Chief Amit Shah, NDA chief ministers and a few other party leader supporting his candidature. Telangana and Tamil Nadu chief ministers are also likely to be present there.
Besides NDA, regional parties like AIADMK, BJD, TRS, JD(U) and Shiv Sena has extended their support to Ram Nath. Currently NDA comprises of 48.6 per cent of votes in the electoral college and with the help of other regional parties supporting Ram Nath’s victory is almost final.
The opposition parties have announced Meira Kumar, a dalit leader as their candidate against NDA candidate.