Kumar, who attended the Iftar party at Yadav's residence in Patna on Friday, said that the question of changing his mind over the candidacy of Kovind and Meira Kumar did not arise and while he deeply respected the latter, she, he said, was set up from the get go to lose her bid. I do not agree with their present strategy on presidential election. He even asked, "Why was she not chosen for the post by them on two earlier occasions (2012 and 2007)?"
This tested the nerve of JD (U), which had actually taken the lead in getting the Opposition to talk of a joint candidate for presidential elections.
Kumar said in a bid to silence his critics, who were cornering him for not supporting a daughter of the state.
The JD (U) had yesterday rejected its ally and RJD chief Lalu Prasad's request to reconsider its support to the NDA's presidential pick, saying its stand was based on merit and it would stick to it.
"Nitish ji spoke rightly that opposition parties have deliberately made Meira Kumar their candidate for presidential poll for a definite defeat", the Union Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution minister told reporters here. "What if BJP had announced Kovind's candidature after we named Gopalkrishna Gandhi?"
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Trump, according to his advisers, had become enormously frustrated that Comey would not say so publicly. Trump and Comey spoke several times , both in person and on the phone.
Later in the evening, Prasad when asked if he had talks with Nitish Kumar said, "This is not the occasion to speak on such subjects".
However, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) said political parties made a mistake by supporting Kovind without knowing whether he is going to be a single man in the contest.
The statement said that the coming polls was a fight of ideology.
He termed the opposition's stance as "losing strategy" and called for a better strategy for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. "There is a feeling that some non-Congress contender should have been considered", the sources said.
According to left sources, it was also surprising that the names they considered were "not even discussed and proposed" when the Opposition leaders met in Delhi yesterday to decide their joint candidate Ahead of the meeting, the left parties had chose to propose Gandhi, who is Mahatma Gandhi's grandson, and B R Ambedkar's grandson Prakash.
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