Kovind has won the election as the new President of India. The result will be announced by this evening. PM Modi’s choice of Kovind, a Dalit candidate, was seen as a masterstroke to divide the opposition and keep allies together as well as a move to consolidate its growing support among politically vital backward castes. If elected, Ram Nath Kovind will be the second Dalit President of India after KR Narayanan.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) broke ranks with the opposition to support for Ram Nath Kovind and the BJP’s partner Shiv Sena, which has in the last two Presidential elections voted against its own alliance, too has supported Mr Kovind.
Kumar’s support to Mr Kovind came as a big blow to the opposition, which had picked the Presidential elections as an occasion to forge an anti-BJP bloc ahead of the 2019 general elections.
