Ram Nath Kovind, BJP’s candidate for the presidential elections, has started his proposed nation wide tour. At his first step on the tour, he reached Lucknow, the capital city of Uttar Pradesh. On this tour, he is supposed to interact with the legislators from BJP and other parties within NDA. Along with that, he is also expected to seek support from other parties.
In Lucknow, Ram Nath Kovind was received by chief minister Yogi Adityanath and other legislators. From there, he was taken to CM house, located on Kalidas road. Ram Nath Kovind is accompanied by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and National General Secratary of BJP, Bhupender Yadav. The notable names among the people who met him at Yogi Adityanath’s residence include Uma Bharti, Dinesh Sharma, Keshav Prasad Maurya and UP assembly speaker, Hriday Narayan Dixit.
Speaking on the occasion, Yogi Adityanath expressed his gratitude to the senior BJP leadership for nominating a politician born in UP for the supreme post. He mentioned that Indian has had a number of prime minister who were born in Uttar Pradesh, however, this will be the first time that Uttar Pradesh will give a president to the country. He also added that Ram Nath Kovind has had a simple life and he will set an example as the president. He appealed all the parties to rise above the interest of politics and to vote for Ram Nath Kovind.
According to the sources, Ram Nath Kovind will be accompanied by a union minister, 2 MPs and one senior leadership member from the party on his tour. This is to ensure that they reach out to all the members who are a part of electoral college. Even though Kovind has around 63% of the electoral votes in his favour, BJP does not want to leave any stone unturned in order to ensure a significant victory for its candidate. Apart from NDA parties, BJP has support of JD(U), TRS, YSRCP, AIADMK and BJD.
The opposition has nominated former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar to contest against Ram Nath Kovind. President Election will take place on July 17th and the result will be announced on July 20th.