Meira Kumar Files Her Nomination Papers For Presidential Election:- Nomination papers for the July 27 election for the country’s top office have been filed by Meira Kumar, the former Lok Sabha Speaker and Opposition Presidential Candidate.
About 17 parties, including Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal ( RJD), Trinamool Congresss, Samajwadi Party( SP) and BSP support her candidacy. A five-time MP, Kumar served as the Lok Sabha Speaker as well as an IFS officer.
During her submission of nomination papers, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, senior party leaders, chief ministers such as Amarinder Singh, Virbhadra Singh and Siddaramaiah were present. Meira is fielded against the NDA Presidential candidate, Ram Nath Kovind for the Presidential post. Earlier, Kovind was the Governor of Bihar.
Last week, BJP President Amit Shah announced Kovind’s name and he is supported by all the NDA parties, along with the non-NDA constituents like BJD, TDP and TRS and AIADMK. Both the leaders Kumar and Kovind, hailing from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh respectively, belong to the Dalit community.
However, Meira Kumar said “caste identification” should not play a role in election to the high office. The contest is a battle of ideologies, said Meira and further questioned the society’s mindset for portraying it as a Dalit vs Dalit fight.
“Prior to this, when elections for this post took place many a time there were candidates from the so-called upper castes. But there was no discussion on their castes. Their qualities, abilities and qualifications were discussed. I do not remember their being any debate about their castes,” she said.
Meanwhile, after her name was finalized by the Opposition last week, Meira Kumar entered Twitter and she is tweeting regularly with a view to create a popular base for her candidature.
She tweeted:
Honoured to file my nomination for the presidential election tomorrow at 11.30 AM in Parliament House.#PresidentialPoll2017
— Meira Kumar (@meira_kumar) June 27, 2017
Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi tweeted:
“Against the ideology of divisiveness she represents the values that bind us as a nation&a ppl.Proud to have @meira_kumar ji as our candidate.”
Against the ideology of divisiveness she represents the values that bind us as a nation&a ppl.Proud to have @meira_kumar ji as our candidate https://t.co/R7M5udN44y
— Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) June 28, 2017
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