I will appeal to Nitish Kumar after going to Patna: Lalu Prasad on Prez candidate

Nitish has extended his support to BJP-led NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind for the race to become the president.

Lalu stated this while he was speaking to media after the Opposition's meet.

The presence of RJD chief Lalu Prasad  in the meeting seemed to be significant, as his ally in the Bihar government, Nitish Kumar's JD(U), has extended  support to the NDA nominated candidate.

However, Lalu said the running of the Bihar government with JD(U) won't be affected over the issue.

The RJD chief even highlighted the ideological differences as the sole reason for opposing Kovind. "We fight for ideology and not for any person. Kovind is an RSS follower. Moreover, NDA did not consult before announcing the name" he said.

Taking a dig at Nitish, Lalu virtually accused the Bihar CM of changing the ship in the middle of the sea. He said: "Nitish ji (Nitish Kumar) was present in the first two meetings. He then said that the decision will be taken collectively. But on Wednesday, he suddenly supported Kovind. I would not have supported Kovind even if Congress did."

While several political parties were the front runner to create a unified Opposition ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha election, Nitish's position seemed to be ambiguous. While once he said a collective opposition is absolutely necessary to stop the Modi wave, he later skipped the lunch invitation of Congress president Sonia Gandhi but met PM Modi, the next day.

However, the Bihar CM acknowledged the meet with PM Modi as non-political.

In 2015, all opposition parties including Nitish-led JD(U), Lalu-led RJD and Congress formed a grand alliance and ultimately crushed BJP's Bihar dreams.

But of late, from demonetisation phase to presidential polls, JD(U) supported BJP-led NDA.

Countering the presidential nominee of BJP-led NDA, the Opposition selected former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar to contest the poll, on Thursday, giving it a Dalit vs Dalit twist.

Announcing the name of Kumar, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said: "The name of Meira Kumar has been selected unanimously by seventeen political parties for the presidential poll."

The meeting of the opposition parties had representatives from NCP, RLD, CPI(M), Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, RJD along with the Congress vice president Sonia Gandhi and former PM Manmohan Singh.

Both candidates of the NDA and the Opposition are Dalits, which had raised the topic of playing caste card in the political field.

While Kovind comes from Uttar Pradesh, Kumar is of Bihar origin.

Pranab Mukherjee's term as the president will expire in the month of July.

Image: Official Facebook page of Lalu Prasad Yadav.