New Delhi, June 26: NDA’s presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind will visit Chandigarh-Panchkula on June 29 to meet legislators and MPs from Punjab and Haryana as part of his outreach effort before the July 17 poll for the top constitutional post.
BJP leaders say they are in touch with leaders of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), which has remained in alliance with the NDA, to garner support for Kovind, who is poised to win with a “very good percentage”.
Though the INLD may not be numerically very strong (three MPs and 19 legislators), but for BJP chief Amit Shah these presidential elections are also a show of strength for the party in the run-up to the 2019 General Election. He has already asked chief ministers and local leaders to gather as much support for Kovind as they can, looking beyond those who have already committed to him.
Kovind’s “Chandigarh stopover” will be at the Haryana Tourism’s Red Bishop complex in Panchkula. He will be accompanied by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, party general secretary Anil Jain and MP Om Birla. While Kovind filed three sets of nomination papers last Monday, the fourth set will be filed on his behalf by Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on June 28—the last date of filing of nomination papers, sources say.
Naidu and his Jammu colleague in the Union Council of Ministers — Jitendra Singh — will escort Kovind to Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s residence on June 28 where he will meet PDP leaders and legislators. The NDA’s Presidential nominee will cover the remaining states in the country after the roll-out of the GST on June 30 midnight.
News Source: http://www.tribuneindia.com
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