TRS, YSRCP to support Ram Nath Kovind

The ruling TRS in Telangana on Monday said the party would support NDA’s presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind.

The main opposition party YSRCP also extended its support to Kovind. YS Jagan conveyed BJP president Amit Shah that his party would support the presidential candidate as he was a dalith.

According to a statement from the office of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, soon after deciding the candidature of Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Rao over phone and requested his support for the NDA’s candidate.

“The prime minister told the chief minister over phone, as per your (KCR’s) suggestion we have decided upon a Dalit candidate for the presidential post,” it said.

The chief minister immediately consulted his party colleagues and conveyed to the prime minister the TRS’s “willingness and his willingness” to support the NDA candidate.

The BJP today named Dalit leader and Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind as the NDA’s candidate for the post of president.

Kovind is likely to file his papers on June 23, BJP president Amit Shah said after a nearly two-hour meeting of the BJP parliamentary board.

He said political parties had been informed of the NDA’s choice and expressed hope that they all will agree to his name.