New Delhi: NDA’s presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind will file his nomination papers on Friday in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and most BJP-led NDA chief ministers including Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, besides the heads of some other parties supporting his candidature.

BJP President Amit Shah will also be present when Kovind files his papers, as will the Telangana and Tamil Nadu chief ministers, two leaders from non-NDA parties supporting Kovind, sources in the southern parties said.

Besides the NDA’s constituents, which comprise over 48.6 per cent of votes in the electoral college that will elect the next president, regional parties such as the AIADMK, BJD, TRS and JD(U) have announced their support to the Dalit leader, making his win an almost foregone conclusion.

Kovind is guaranteed to get more than 61 per cent of the vote, and the finally tally may increase depending on how some still-undecided regional parties vote, BJP source said.

Knowing well that it is short of votes to win the election, a group of opposition parties today announced that former Speaker Meira Kumar, also a Dalit leader, would be their joint candidate against Kovind.

The election is scheduled for July 17 and the counting of votes will take place on July 20.

The term of President Pranab Mukherjee ends on July 24.

BJP on Meira Kumar as opposition candidate for Presidential election

“When the Congress had the opportunity to elect a Dalit president when they were in power they did not find Meira Kumar suitable. But when the defeat of the opposition candidate is certain they have fielded her as a scapegoat.”

“This clearly shows that it has no commitment to elect leaders from marginalised sections to high offices and had decided to field her purely done as a token exercise,” BJP spokesperson G V L Narsimha Rao said.