On Monday, NDA announced Ram Nath Kovind, the current Bihar Governor as its nominee for the upcoming presidential polls. Kovind is the first Dalit to be nominated as a presidential candidate.
Now, all eyes are on Congress, which is likely to nominate a leader from the Dalit community. Off all the plausible candidates, these four names are being seen as the most likely pool of candidates.
Prakash Ambedkar
Prakash Ambedkar is the grandson of Dr BR Ambedkar and the national leader of Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh (BBM), a local political party.
He is a two-time Lok Sabha member from the Akola constituency in Maharashtra. He was also Rajya Sabha MP between 1990-1996.
A lawyer by profession, Ambedkar got his law degree from Siddhartha Law College in Mumbai. The college is run by the People’s Education Society, which was founded by BR Ambedkar.
Ambedkar has been leading a movement of landless farmers in Maharashtra since 1982. He also serves as the chief-editor of “Prabuddha Bharata”, a monthly journal of the Ramakrishna order.
Apart from being a leader in the Vidharba movement for carving out a separate state from Maharashtra, and standing up for the rights of Dalits, SCs and STs, Ambedkar spoke against the 2016 flogging of the four Dalit youths in Una, Gujarat.
He questioned the need for gaurakshaks when there were already police forces in states to handle the law and order situation.
Meira Kumar
Meira Kumar is the daughter of prominent Dalit leader and former Deputy Prime Minister Jagjivan Ram. A lawyer and a diplomat, Kumar got her education from Indraprastha College and Miranda House from Delhi University.
In 1973, Meira entered the Indian Foreign Services and was posted in London and Madrid during her tenure.
Kumar entered politics in 1985 after being elected from Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh where she defeated political heavyweights Mayawati and Ram Vilas Paswan.
A five-time Member of Parliament, the former-lawyer has held the position of Union Cabinet Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, and Water Resources during UPA-I.
Creating history, Kumar was the first woman to become the Lok Sabha Speaker in 2009.
Kumar was in the middle of a controversy relating to unlawfully occupying her father’s bungalow post his death, of which her name was cleared in 2012.
Mallikarjun Kharge
Mallikarjun Kharge is the current Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha and he studied law from the Seth Shankarlal Lahoti Law College in Gulbarga.
Beginning his career as a student union leader, Kharge has been a senior Karnataka leader and won nine consecutive Assembly Elections in 1971-2009.
Kharge has over 45 years of experience in politics, has held various roles across ministries and narrowly missed the chance of becoming the Karnataka Chief Minister.
The veteran leader has a ‘clean’ image and is free of scandal or controversy. However, Karnataka Lokayukta has been investigating him for disproportionate assets since 2014, but has made little progress on the matter.
Sushil Kumar Shinde
Sushil Kumar Shinde is a two-time Rajya Sabha MP with a law degree from Shivaji University in Maharashtra. Shinde began his career as a court bailiff and served on the Maharashtra state police force before making his move to politics.
Shinde won his first Lok Sabha state election from in Maharashtra in 1978, which he then won consecutively for terms.
He lost the 2002 Vice Presidential election to NDA’s Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.
He was briefly the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, between 2003-2004, only to be made the Governor of Andhra Pradesh.
Under the UPA-II, Shinde served as Home Minister and became the Leader of House in Lok Sabha after Pranab Mukherjee was elected President in 2012.
Shinde has drawn flak in the past for referring to Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafeez Sayeed as “Shri” during a speech in Parliament.
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