A AKHTER / NEW DELHI
Bihar Governor Ramnath Kovind will be NDA’s candidate for presidential elections to be held in July. The announcement was made by BJP President Amit Shah in New Delhi after BJP Parliamentary Board meeting discussed the upcoming Presidential election.
Amit Shah said that Mr Kovind has worked hard for the Dalits and backward sections of society.
Born on October 1, 1945 in a Dalit family at Kanpur Dehat in Uttar Pradesh, Ram Nath Kovind, was a Central Government Advocate in Delhi High Court from 1977 to 1979 and Central Government Standing Counsel in Supreme Court from 1980 to 1993. He became Advocate-on-Record of the Supreme Court of India in 1978. He had practiced in Delhi High Court and Supreme Court for about 16 years till 1993. He was enrolled as an Advocate in 1971 with the Bar Council of Delh.
Before becoming Bihar Governor, Kovind was Rajya Sabha MP in April 1994 from Uttar Pradesh and served for two consecutive terms for 12 years till March, 2006. He served as Member on various important Parliamentary Committees.
Kovind, is known for his crusade for the Rights and Cause of Weaker Sections of the Society specially Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes/ OBC/Minority/Land Women from his student days.
In the year 1997 some Government Orders were issued by the Central Government which adversely affected the interests of employees of the Scheduled Castes/Tribes, Kovind joined the movement of SC/ST employees against the Central Government and consequently succeeded in getting those Government Orders null and void by the passage of three Amendments in the Constitution of India during the first NDA regime.
During his parliamentary tenure of 12 years, he emphasized on the development of basic infrastructure for education in rural areas by helping in construction of school buildings in Uttar Pradesh and Uttrakhand under M.P. L.A.D. Scheme.
During his Advocacy tenure, he took a leading role in providing free legal aid to the weaker sections of society, especially SC/ST women, needy and the poor under the aegis of “Free Legal Aid Society” in Delhi.