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Who is Meira Kumar? Why is Congress-led Opposition considering her as Presidential nominee?
Even though only a symbolic fight remains, the Congress party wants to give all.
New Delhi, June 22: As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced Ram Nath Kovind as NDA’s candidate, the Opposition unity is in tatters. Many members of the Opposition group are speaking in favour of the NDA candidate. The leader of the group, the Congress party, has not laid down arms yet. Even though only a symbolic fight remains, the party wants to give all. It is reported that Meira Kumar is the front-runner to be Opposition’s candidate. Who is she?
Meira Kumar is a 5-time Lok Sabha Member of Parliament. She had been elected in 8th, 11th, 12th, 14th and 15th Lok Sabha. She had been an IFS officer and lived in many countries. She joined politics in 1985 and won the poll. Last time she was in Parliament in between 2009-2014. She is the daughter of Dalit icon Jagjivan Ram who also served as deputy prime minister of the country in Indira Gandhi government. She also served as Lok Sabha speaker during UPA-2 government.
BJP played a trump card with the nomination of Ram Nath Kovind. Kovind comes from Koli community and is a Dalit. He is not controversial and has maintained a low-key profile. He was a BJP member and has got RSS acceptability. However, he is a not a hardcore Hindutva hardliner. Hence, he is acceptable to many in the Opposition cordon. (Also read: Opposition to decide Presidential nominee today, Meira Kumar remains frontrunner, NCP goes into huddle)
JD(U)’s Nitish Kumar has already announced his support for Kovind. Mayawati would also support him as he is a Dalit and until a better candidate was not present, she would go with the NDA nominee. Kovind also fulfils SP’s condition of a candidate from a political background.
Meanwhile, Meira Kumar also comes from a Dalit community and is respected across all the parties. She is a politician and a woman. Hence, she seems to be an ideal competition for Kovind. The Opposition knows the fight is lost, but by fielding Kumar, it might salvage Opposition unity, which is the most important thing in view of general election 2019.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi was trying to bring all opposition political parties onboard against the mighty BJP for future elections. The Opposition that is already divided over many lines crumbled with a simple trick by BJP. This is a big blow to her efforts. She would have to start from the scratch and find other issues to unite the Opposition against the Modi government.
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