Janjivan Bureau / New Delhi:Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind will be NDA’s presidential candidate from NDA. Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah on Monday declared the name of presidential candidate.
“Kovind’s name was decided upon after consultations with Opposition leaders, including Congress president Sonia Gandhi and ex-prime minister Manmohan Singh” Shah further said.
“PM has personally spoken to Sonia Gandhi ji, Manmohan Singh ji and everyone has been informed about the decision,” he added.
Kovind is a Dalit leader who has been Bihar’s governor for three years, since the beginning of Modi’s tenure. Hailing from Uttar Pradesh, Kovind has been elected as a Rajya Sabha MP twice, in 1994 and 2000.
Notably, if elected Kovind will be the second Dalit president after KR Narayanan.
However, the BJP chief said that they were yet to decide on a name for the post of vice-president.
The BJP Parliamentary Board’s met to decide the presidential candidate at party headquarters with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior leaders present.
The Board members were briefed about the consultation undertaken by a three-member party committee with allies and opposition parties.
The committee members include Union ministers Rajnath Singh, M Venkaiah Naidu and Arun Jaitley, who are also the members of the Board.
