To be the Presidential Candidate for the NDA for the upcoming Presidential poll, as announced by Amit Shah, BJP President. Ram Nath Kovind born on 1 October 1945, Village Paraunkh,Tehsil Derapur District Kanpur Dehat is a current Governor of Bihar. He is Presidential candidate of NDA in 2017. Kovind is a politician from the Bharatiya Janata Party-BJP.
He was elected to Rajya Sabha from state of Uttar Pradesh during the two terms of 1994-2000 and 2000-2006. He is an advocate by profession and practices in Delhi. On June 19, 2017,He is a former President of the BJP Dalit Morcha (1998-2002) and President of the All-India Koli Samaj.
He also served as national spokesperson of the party. On 8 August 2015 the President of India appointed him the Governor of Bihar. He is candidate for presidential election of 2017 as confirmed by amit shah BJP president Amit Shah declared him as the NDA consensus candidate for the post of Indian President.
Amit Shah, the President of the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) announced on June 19th, 2017 that Ram Nath Kovind will be the candidate for the ruling NDA (National Democratic Alliance) for the Presidential election.
Kovind the Dalit champion
Bihar Governor and former President of the BJP Dalit Morcha and President of the All-India Koli Samaj, Ramnath Kovind, earlier sought tougher laws to curb the growing incidents of atrocities on dalits.
Kovind, who was also Chairman of a House Committee in the Rajya Sabha, said that though the laws including the SC and ST Atrocities (Prevention) Act and the Protection of Civil Rights (PCR) Act were a deterrent to perpetrators of crimes, new laws were required to prevent recurring atrocities, particularly against women and children.
He did not agree with the view that the increasing atrocities on dalits was one of the main reasons for their religious conversion. On the charges of misuse of the Atrocities (Prevention) Act for settling personal scores, Mr. Kovind said there was some truth in the charges, and said the aberrations could be overcome only through a massive awareness campaign by government agencies.
On the low conviction rates of the cases filed under the Atrocities (Prevention) and PCR Acts, he said the judicial system needed to be overhauled to prevent the culprits from escaping punishment and reduce the delay in disposing of cases.
Kovind said there was no proposal before the Union Government to enact an anti-conversion law on the lines of the one introduced in Tamil Nadu as that would be in contravention of the spirit of the Constitution, which gave the people the right to practice the religion of their choice.
Referring to the filling of backlog vacancies in Central departments and public sector units, Mr. Kovind said the Department of Personnel and Training had issued orders to all departments, both Central and State, to identify backlog vacancies and fill them at the earliest. The order clearly stated that these backlog vacancies should be filled through special recruitment drives immediately, he added.
He said the process of filling backlog vacancies in the Central departments had begun. However, the matter was yet to be speeded up in the departments of State governments. The filling of backlog vacancies in PSUs had run into problems, and they were not ready to fill the vacancies on the plea of disinvestments.
Reiterating the commitment of the BJP to programmes for the welfare of dalits, Kovind said that of the 118 MPs from the SCs/STs, 72 were members of the party.
