Presidential election 2017: NDA's presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind files nomination today
for President at Parliament House. In a big show of strength, BJP chief Amit Shah, top ministers and other leaders from the BJP and allied parties have reached and are now waiting for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to arrive.
PM Modi was the first proposer on Ram Nath Kovind's nomination and union Home Minister Rajnath Singh will second. Four sets of papers were prepared and A list of leaders signed them, including Amit Shah, union ministers Arun Jaitley, Suhsma Swaraj and Venkaiah Naidu and allies Parkash Singh Badal of the Akali Dal and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Babu of the TDP.
Each set of nomination papers were also signed by 50 lawmakers as proposers and 50 as seconders.
Ram Nath Kovind, who was Governor of Bihar till he was nominated earlier this week. Several chief ministers too accompanied Mr Kovind including the Odisha's Naveen Patnaik of the Biju Janata Dal and Tamil Nadu's E Palaniswami of the AIADMK, leaders of regional parties who have pledged support to the BJP's nominee.
Along with their support, the ruling alliance now has over 60 per cent of the vote and Mr Kovind is expected to sail through. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has broken ranks with the opposition to pledge support to Mr Kovind, who he has described as an ideal candidate for Rashtrapati Bhavan.
By picking
Meira Kumar, 72, to contest against Mr Kovind, the opposition has turned it into a Dalit vs Dalit battle, seen as strategy to ensure the support of leaders like Mayawati, who said it would be difficult for her to vote against a Dalit leader for the top post.
Meira Kumar is from Bihar and Nitish Kumar's partners, Lalu Yadav and the Congress, have urged him to reconsider his decision and support "the daughter of Bihar." Mr Kumar's party, Janata Dal United, has said there is no question of changing its mind.
Ms Kumar is expected to file her nomination papers in a couple of days. After the nomination process is completed the nominees will begin campaigning.
The president is elected by members of an Electoral College made up of members of Parliament and state legislatures. Votes in the presidential elections will be counted on July 20, three days after voting.
President Pranab Mukherjee's term ends on July 24.