Ram Nath Kovind, the NDA presidential candidate, was a product of former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh's initiative to expand the BJP's base by promoting leaders from the marginalised sections of society.
"Will accompany Shri Ram Nath Kovind Ji as he files his nomination papers today for the upcoming Presidential election", he tweeted.
Kovind has filed three sets of nomination papers for the July 17 election before the Lok Sabha Secretary General Anup Mishra in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and a host of chief ministers and union ministers besides two party stalwarts LK Advani and M M Joshi.
Non-NDA parties supporting Kovind include JD (U) (1.91% of the votes), AIADMK (5.39%), BJD (2.99%), TRS (2%), YSRCP (1.53%) and INLD (0.38%).
A group of opposition parties had yesterday announced that former Speaker Meira Kumar, also a Dalit leader, would be their joint candidate against Kovind.
For presidential elections, votes are marked in a preferential order which is then counted to declare the victor. The first was K R Narayanan, who was in the Rashtrapati Bhavan in 1997-2002.
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In 2007, it backed Pratibha Patil instead of NDA candidate Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. Why should we be interested if you want a person who will work only for Dalits.
"It is my belief that the post of the president is above party politics and I will strive to keep it so", he said in a brief address to the media. And with 63.1% of the electoral college votes already in the bag, Kovind is expected to be a shoo-in for the post. Sources said when Kovind met Kalyan, he told him that "you are not the UP assembly material and you rather deserve a Rajya Sabha seat".
In a reference to the country's security, he noted that the president was the supreme commander of the armed forces. "Now everyone needs to support his candidature".
Paswan, who is in Patna to host an Iftar Party on behalf of his Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), an NDA ally, welcomed Nitish Kumar's decision to support Kovind and invited him in the NDA fold.
"Since I became the governor I do not belong to any political party", the former head of the BJP's Dalit Morcha - who is nearly certain to be the next president - said.
He enjoys a clean reputation and has steered clear of any controversy in his over 26-year-old political career.
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