Prez Election: Our fight for ideology starts, says Meira Kumar after filing nomination

Accompanied by top Congress leaders, former Lok Sabha Speaker and Opposition Presidential candidate Meira Kumar on Wednesday filed her nomination for the upcoming election.

75-year-old Kumar is the joint opposition candidate of 17 non-NDA parties against the ruling dispensation's nominee Ram Nath Kovind.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, senior Congress leader Randeep Surjewala and Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh accompanied Kumar while filing nomination papers. 

After filing her nomination, Meira Kumar said, "From today our fight for ideology starts."

Meanwhile, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi said that Kumar represents the values that bind us as a nation and people. "Proud to have @meira_kumar ji as our candidate," he tweeted.

Kumar will launch her campaign from Sabarmati. "I will face presidential polls on plank of democratic values, inclusiveness, end of poverty, destruction of caste structure," she said while addressing media on Tuesday.

Earlier, Kumar had made an emotional appeal to the electorate comprising MPs and MLAs to cast their vote with their 'inner conscience'.

On questions of the Presidential polls being seen as a Dalit vs Dalit contest, she said such a thought process has to be buried.

When questioned about Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar supporting NDA's candidate Ram Nath Kovind, Kumar said that such things happen in politics and she would decide what to do at the right time.