New Delhi, July 3: All six independent members in the Rajya Sabha are likely to vote for the NDA’s presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind, giving a boost to the BJP’s efforts to get him over two-thirds of the total strength of the electoral college.
While some of the members have been supportive of the BJP on most issues, others too have come around to its appeal to vote for Kovind, a senior party leader said. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, an investor who is part of the NDA in Kerala; Sanjay Dattatraya Kakade, a Maharashtra businessman who has joined the BJP; Subhash Chandra, the Zee Group chairman elected to the Upper House with the BJP’s support and industrialist Parimal Nathwani are among the independent MPs in the House.
Amar Singh, who has been expelled from the Samajwadi Party, and A V Swamy of Odisha are two other members under the independent category. “We have approached them and are expecting that they will vote for Kovind,” a BJP leader said.
With a majority of votes firmly behind him, Kovind’s election as the next president is virtually guaranteed and the saffron party is now working overtime to win over independents, smaller parties and fence-sitters to increase his lead over Meira Kumar, the opposition’s candidate.
Meanwhile, Opposition presidential candidate Meira Kumar has written letters to all members of the electoral college, seeking their support in the July 17 election.
She visited Hyderabad Monday as part of her campaign. After garlanding the statue of her father Babu Jagjivan Ram in the city, she told reporters that she wrote letters last week to all
members of the electoral college.
The former Lok Sabha Speaker said that she had also made a written appeal to Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), the ruling party in Telangana which has already announced its support to her rival and NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind.
Meira Kumar, who addressed the members f Parliament and state legislators of the Congress, said that she would take necessary steps as a follow-up to the letter sent to the TRS. PTI