Ram Vilas invites JD(U) to join NDA

While Meira Kumar’s Candidature surely takes the Presidential polls to a Dalit vs Dalit battle, it is definitely much more than that. “Our decision to support Kovind remains unchanged”.

The RJD leader’s remarks came a day after the JD-U announced support to Kovind in the July 17 Presidential election.

“It is an election for President”.

Informed sources said Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ahmed Patel went to Sharad Pawar’s residence here, after he was reluctant to attend the opposition meeting.

“There is no doubt about the result”.

After the meeting Lalu Prasad of the RJD said he would meet Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and “appeal to him again to rethink” his partys decision to support the NDA nominee, which he called a “historic blunder”.

“We have taken this decision after thinking on all aspects”.

It is an open secret in JD (U) that Nitish has been preparing in earnest to become prime minister in 2019. He said he had not heard of any candidate joining the fray with an intention to lose. “It is not an issue of political confrontation at all”. Ram Nath Kovind’s role as Bihar Governor has been admirable, he worked impartially. “He had worked in Bihar without any bias”.

An indication that JD (U) is under pressure was evident when no representative of the party was present for the filing of nominations by the NDA’s Presidential candidate Kovind. “.don’t know what made Kumar to move away and extend support to a RSS man”, he told reporters on his arrival at the Jay Prakash Narayan Airport at Patna from New Delhi.

In her speeches, Kumar has said that the country’s sustainable growth is not possible without ending the centuries-old exclusion of marginalized groups such as scheduled castes and tribes.

While it is unclear whether the regional parties in Congress ruled states of Mizoram and Meghalaya will vote for or against the NDA candidate, for now it is plausible that the ruling party in both the states will vote for UPA candidate Meira Kumar. The BJD and INLD have also reportedly sided with the NDA pick, revealing the cracks in the Opposition camp.

Meanwhile, former Union minister S. Jaipal Reddy said that the Presidential election was not a contest between two people, but Opposition candidate Meira Kumar symbolises the pure Constitutional sprit while Mr Kovind is an anonymous person. “It articulates, in the fullest sense, the basis of our electoral philosophy – that capability and experience must always supersede all other considerations”, she said.

The Opposition – Congress and the Communist Party of India (CPI), and other parties – met on Thursday to discuss the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) decision on Presidential nominee Ramnath Kovind, following which they announced their candidate. “We are confident that such a person would be elected”, he said.