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Meira Kumar is opposition’s pick for presidential election

Former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar is the pick of the opposition parties as their nominee for the presidential election.…

Meira Kumar is opposition’s pick for presidential election

Meira Kumar (PHOTO: IANS)

Former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar is the pick of the opposition parties as their nominee for the presidential election.

Opposition parties, comprising 17 outfits, led by the Congress met to select the candidate on Thursday. BJP has already announced Ram Nath Kovind as NDA candidate for the poll.

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This has come after the Left projected names of either Gopalkrishna Gandhi or Prakash Ambedkar for the poll.

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Prominent among those who attended the meeting held in the Parliament House Library were Congress president Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and senior party leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge and Ahmed Patel, besides NCP’s Sharad Pawar and RJD’s Lalu Prasad. Representatives of Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samajwadi Party, JD-S, RSP, JMM, Kerala Congress, IUML and AIUDF were also present.

Kumar had on Wednesday met Sonia Gandhi and other senior party leaders, fuelling speculations that the party was willing to support her candidature.

Earlier in the day, CPM leader Sitaram Yechury had said that former West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi is the first choice as the Presidential candidate against BJP's Ram Nath Kovind.

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