Opposition parties meet to decide on Presidential candidate
With the opposition unity having been heavily dented after JDU's Nitish Kumar extended his support to BJP candidate Ram Nath Kovind, a total of 16 parties sat for the meeting to decide their pick and put up a fight against the Government.
According to media reports, former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and Prakash Ambedkar, grandson of BR Ambedkar, are the front runners of the opposition camp.
Like Kovind, both Meira Kumar and Prakash Ambedkar are from the Dalit community and their choice speaks for the constraint the opposition is in after Prime Minister Narendra Modi played his masterstroke.
Meira Kumar is the daughter of Dalit stalwart and former deputy prime minister late Jagjivan Ram.
Ahead of the meeting, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi rushed her party's Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ahmed Patel to meet with Sharad Pawar, who was reportedly considering going the Nitish Kumar way.
Left leader Sitaram Yechury, who is insistent that the opposition must put up a candidate against the BJP, also visited Mr Pawar's home.
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