The announcement was made by Congress President Sonia Gandhi on 22 June 2017. Though Trinamool Congress' Mamata Banerjee, BSP's Mayawati and SP's Akhilesh Yadav, who were present at the last opposition meeting held on May 26, were missing, their representatives were there. "It will not be fair to answer this question [of committing support] as discussions will soon take place among Opposition leaders on the issue of a candidate for the President's post", he reportedly said in Patna. "We chose to extend support to NDA's presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind as his tenure as governor had been peaceful", KC Tyagi, JD (U) spokesperson said.
The grapevine had been abuzz with talk that Dr B R Ambedkar's grand son Prakash Ambedkar, ex-diplomat Gopal Krishna Gandhi and ex-home minister Sushil Kumar were also prospective candidates in the fray.
It is learnt that they are toying with names like former speaker Meira Kumar, BR Ambedkar's grandson Prakash Ambedkar and Magsaysay award victor Bezwada Wilson.
But the JD-U decision won't have an impact on the RJD-JDU alliance in Bihar, he added.
However, Kumar expressed "happiness" over the BJP's decision to nominate Kovind as its presidential candidate.
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Meanwhile rebel AIADMK leader and former chief minister O Panneerselvam is also scheduled to fly to Delhi later tonight.
Other parties represented at the meeting included JD-S, RSP, JMM, Kerala Congress, IUML and the AIUDF of Assam.
With the backing of non-NDA parties like TRS (2 per cent), AIADMK (5.39 per cent), YSR Congress (1.53 per cent) and BJD (2.99 per cent), the NDA's support will cross the half-way mark comfortably to reach almost 63 per cent, with JD-U contributing 1.91 per cent. "There could not have been a better candidate than Meira Kumar for the post of President", said Ghulam Nabi Azad, leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha.
If elected, she will be India's second Dalit president after K R Narayanan, who served from 1997 to 2002. Meira, on the other hand, became a household name with her ever- smiling face and her composure during the worst of the parliamentary sessions.
However, there is no doubt about the fact that Kumar's name might change the game for NDA's Ram Nath Kovind, especially in the case of garnering support from parties like BSP, which had initially shown their interest in support Kovind due to his Dalit background but soon shifted their weight behind Meira.
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