Huge pink hoardings in Hyderabad welcomed NDA Presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind. UPA Presidential Nominee Meira Kumar visited Hyderabad on Tuesday and sought support from the local leaders. Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao refused to give an appointment to Kumar despite trying several times. TRS announced support for NDA’s presidential nominee but there is hardly any detriment in meeting Kumar, who was the speaker when the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization bill was passed in the Parliament.
KCR vehemently snubbed her and even avoided telephonic conversation, which is discourteous towards the first women Lok Sabha Speaker. Leaders have been circumventing her. If citizens meted out same treatment to the leaders who conduct door-to-door campaign during parliamentary and assembly elections, it will ease the burden on Election Commission. The action only proves that politics is eventually a numbers game and opportuneness and no longer about experience and services.
However, dynamics of politics is fluctuating. It may be recalled that Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy who once lost the presidential election but later won it unanimously. Kumar will be defeated in the numbers game, but questioning her candidacy and eschewing her is incongruous.
Former Lok Sabha speaker Kumar said, “Wherever I go, people tell me that I do not have the numbers. If I do not have the numbers, why don’t you round up the figures and declare the results? Why have the elections.”
Out of the fourteen Presidential elections, only in the seventh poll, Reddy won unopposed, due to the sudden death of serving President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. Also 36 candidates of the 37 who filed nominations were disqualified. Even in the very first election in 1952 Dr Rajendra Prasad defeated his nearest rival KT Shah with a margin of one lakh votes. In democracy competition is inevitable. The election also enlightens the winning candidate about the degree of opposition.
As per the constitution of India, a citizen qualifies to contest in Presidential elections upon completion of 35 years of age, and is eligible to become a member of Lok Sabha, without holding office of profit either at Center or states.
People have been targeting Congress for fielding a candidate with Dalit background. A law graduate, Kumar joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1973 and served at embassies in Spain, United Kingdom and Mauritius. She hails from a political family especially with her father Babu Jagjivan Ram being former deputy prime minister who is also prominent Dalit rights activist.
It is vicious that a woman competing for the highest post of the Indian democracy has to face denigrators more than her rival.
