While announcing Kovind's name, BJP chief Amit Shah had said the party had gone through a list of names before zeroing in on him.
The former Bihar governor was picked as the ruling National Democratic Alliance's candidate for president earlier this week.
Meanwhile, a divided Opposition is heading into a crucial meeting today to decide on the nominee for the presidential poll against NDA's Ram Nath Kovind.
Non- NDA party, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi has backed Kovind for President.
BJP led NDA government after a good thought process made a clever yet smart decision by naming Ram Nath Kovind as their presidential candidate.
Nitish Kumar, who had praised Ram Nath Kovind as an "ideal governor", on Wednesday urged his MLAs to support his candidature for the President's post. Moreover, Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu spoke to NDA chief ministers and urged them to be present at the time of the filing of nomination by Kovind, says sources.
Secondly, the strategy behind the selection of Kovind was to checkmate the Opposition and send a message to the Dalits that the BJP stood by the deprived community. Nitish Kumar is known to take independent decision like his welcoming the demonetisation decision and surgical strikes a year ago and the JD-U voting for UPA candidate Pranab Mukherjee while sharing power with BJP in the state.
Dassey attorneys welcome appellate ruling
She said they did the math and determined that he had been in prison for 4,132 days as of Thursday. "We're not there yet". Dassey confessed yet again during the May 13 police interrogation, though the details differed from the May 1 confession.
Bihar CM has reportedly told Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi about his decision.
The election is scheduled for 17 July and the counting of votes will take place on 20 July.
JD (U) has been a part of the opposition's joint initiative on the presidential elections. "As the party has made a decision to support Kovind, there is no need for it to attend the meeting of opposition parties being held in New delhi", said JD-U spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan.
It is said the then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao did not make Narayanan a minister because he was seen as too "Left-leaning" but the Left parties ensured that he became the vice-president as a trade-off for their support to Shankar Dayal Sharma's presidential bid in 1992.
Amid this, speculations are rife that the opposition is likely to nominate former LS speaker Meira Kumar and BR Ambedkar's grandson Prakash Ambedkar as their presidential candidate. The NDA has 5,37,683 votes with a shortage of around 12,000 votes.
RJD supremo Lalu Prasad said his party will go with other Opposition parties in their choice for a presidential candidate.
Comments