The NDA’s presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind is not only getting additional votes from six Trinamool Congress MLAs in Tripura, the BJP expects two out of the three Congress MLAs in the State also to extend support to him.
Mr.. Kovind will be visiting the northeastern States on July 6 and 7 and party leaders say that his support base will show a substantial increase over and above the strength of the NDA in these States.
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Hectic schedule
According to senior BJP leaders involved with Mr. Kovind’s campaign, he will land in Guwahati on the morning on July 6 and directly fly to Arunachal Pradesh where he will meet members of the BJP legislative group. “He will return to Guwahati for an overnight stay; in the evening MLAs supporting his candidature from Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya and Mizoram will meet him,” said the office bearer.
“We are expecting support from six Trinamool Congress MLAs in Tripura, two Congress MLAs from the State and substantial support from 15 independent MLAs in Meghalaya apart from Conrad Sangma’s National People’s Party (NPP),” the source added.
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The next day, Mr.. Kovind will meet MLAs from Nagaland and Manipur. He will be accompanied by Union minister for Rural Development Narendra Singh Tomar, BJP general secretary in charge of northeastern states, Ram Madhav, BJP’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha Rakesh Singh, and tribal MP Ram Vichar Netam.
Maximising support
“Our effort is to ensure that we maximise the support for our candidate from the northeast, to push the over all percentage of votes in his favour over 65% of the electoral college,” said the party official. The Trinamool Congress on Monday said it was “distancing” itself from party MLAs who have declared support for Mr.. Kovind.
The task of drumming up support for Mr. Kovind has fallen on Assam Finance Minister and convenor of the northeast chapter of the NDA, the North East Democratic Alliance — Himanta Biswa Sarma. While not confirming the news about the crossing over of Congress MLAs, Mr.. Sarma said he “welcomed the support from Trinamool MLAs and hopes that more support for Mr.. Kovind will be forthcoming from the northeast.”
Six independent Rajya Sabha members have also pledged support to Mr.. Kovind, including Rajeev Chandrashekhar, Amar Singh, Parimal Nathwani, Sadananda Kakde.