Presidential Election: Sena clarifies support to Kovind; calls itself 'restrained'

Uddhav Thackeray explains his support to Kovind/ File PTI image

New Delhi: The opposition is in a huddle over NDA nominee Ramnath Kovind’s name who is a Dalit face for the forthcoming Presidential Election, and are set to hold a 17 parties’ meeting at 4:30 pm on Thursday to decide on their further strategy and move. Recently, BJP’s former ally Shiv Sena had extended support for Kovind, making his candidature even stronger. But, a report in Sena mouthpiece Saamna has turned the picture around, as Sena has expressed their unhappiness over their own support to BJP and have stated it as an action performed under pressure. The article read, “BJP chose Ramnath Kovind’s name to attract Dalit votebank. If BJP had to play a Dalit card, they could have picked bigger and more famous names like Prakash Ambedkar, Ramdas Athwale, Bhalchandra Mungekar or Naredra Jadhav”. The article further added, “Shivsena’s choice are Mohan Bhagwat and MS Swaminathan, but because BJP has power and majority, that is why we had to support Kovind’s nomination”. Nitish’s support changes the picture: Where on one hand opposition is united against Government over Kovind, Nitish has extended his support for Kovind and changed the statistics, taking Kovind’s votes far more than required for victory. The opposition seems unhappy with Nitish over his move, which has almost ascertained Kovind’s entry into ‘Raisina Hill’. The support came as a big shock especially to Lalu and Congress. Before Nitish’s support, NDA had close to 5,32,000 votes whereas the required number of votes were 5, 49,422. Whereas, after Nitish’s support NDA has attained 6,29,658 votes; which is far more than the required number for winning the election.