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BJP picks up Bihar Governor and Dalit leader Ram Nath Kovind as Presidential candidate

by IBNS 18 Jun 2017, 11:53 pm

New Delhi, June 19 (IBNS) : Bihar governor Ram Nath Kovind, a Dalit leader, is the National Democratic Alliances choice for India's next President, BJP chief Amit Shah said on Monday.

He made the announcement after a meeting of the BJP Parliamentary Board. 

Shah said PM Modi talked with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi as well as former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and informed them about the NDA's choice.

"We are for putting up a candidate from the Dalit community, who has fought his way to rise. We have conveyed it...Now they (Congress and others) will discuss among themselves and decide," Shah said. 

A two-time member of Rajya Sabha and former national spokesperson of the party, Kovind headed the BJP’s Scheduled Caste Morcha between 1999 and 2002. 

Kovind comes from the Koli community, which is classified as scheduled caste in Uttar Pradesh.

Born in 1945, Kovind was a member of the Upper House between 1994 and 2000 and between 2000 and 2006.