Since the UP polls ended, newsrooms across the country have been buzzing about the upcoming Presidential elections. However, to be perfectly honest, it seemed like we were as clued in about BJP’s intentions, as we are about how GST will work, i.e., not at all.

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And the Modi-Shah duo again showed their propensity to pull a rabbit out of the hat as they announced Ram Nath Kovind, who was last in the news in 2015 when he asked a red-faced Tej Pratap Yadav to repeat his oath as Minister.

The received wisdom was that BJP’s brute majority win in the significantly huge state of Uttar Pradesh meant that the BJP had carte blanche to pick the President of their choice. For the uninitiated, the Presidential polls have a slightly more complicated procedure than our regular elections where MPs (in both Houses) and state assembly MLAs get a vote.

Also, the weight of an MLA's vote is directly proportional to the number of denizens of a particular state (according to 1971 census), meaning that a UP MLA's vote is worth 208 points to an MLA from Mizoram whose vote is worth 8 points.

Similarly, the weight of an MP's vote is significantly higher and is worth 708 points, which is three-and-half times higher than the vote weightage of MLAs from Uttar Pradesh. So the BJP with 282 Lok Sabha MPs and 56 Rajya Sabha MPs, simply had all the numbers to pick the President of their choice.

They could’ve gone for  figure like RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, picked popular-across-the-spectrum leaders like Sushma Swaraj or Sumitra Mahajan or even ensured some retirement happiness for ageing patriarch LK Advani.

Instead, the Modi-Shah duo zeroed in on Ram Nath Kovind, a venerable BJP Dalit leader with a Sangh background, who was the Governor of Bihar, a non-controversial pick who is unlikely to alienate friends or make any new enemies.

In many ways, Kovind was the Goldilocks candidate, neither too hot nor too cold, the perfect mix of ideology and credentials. A low-key lawyer and social activist, Kovind ticks all the boxes. As a Dalit from Uttar Pradesh, he is a foil to the firebrand Adityanath who was picked as CM candidate.

While a more controversial candidate might have earned ire, Kovind’s left the Opposition parties flabbergasted. TMC’s Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien summed up political parties’ consternation when he tweeted: “How many you logged into Wikipedia today? I did.”

Kovind’s elevation also, quite quickly, destroyed any illusion of a united Opposition.

The first cracks in the Grand Alliance have already shown up with BSP supremo Mayawati saying she will back Kovind unless the Opposition puts up a suitable Dalit candidate. Nitish Kumar hailed the ‘unbiased’ governor and said he was ‘personally glad’.

Down south, Telangana’s TRS backed the candidate and even said it was their idea. Meanwhile, AIADMK had earlier pledged their support, saying they’d follow in Amma’s steps.

In the East, Odisha CM and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik supported Kovind after a talk with PM Modi. The only one crying foul as of now are BJP’s Maharashtra allies - the Shiv Sena, but given their total MP and MLA numbers, their petulance is hardly going to manifest into anything real.  

This leaves the Congress, who are at their weakest with 44 Lok Sabha MPs, 58 RS MPs and 786 MLAs, clutching at straws. Hectic parleys with regional parties to reach a consensus candidate came to nothing more than over-glorified photo-shoots.

The truth is that Kovind’s candidature is very hard to counter. He’s no controversial leader like UP CM Yogi Adityanath and unlikely to get op-ed editorials on how his candidature ‘defeated the idea of India’. His only moments of controversy came when as a BJP spokesperson, he opposed the Misra Commission’s reservation suggestions for Muslims and Christians.  

His credentials as a lawyer and social activist are impeccable, and his candidature aims to shatter the notion that the BJP is an exclusive upper-caste Hindu party which treats Dalits shabbily.

All this leaves a near-headless Opposition with no room to manoeuvre. This was evident from their reaction, with Mamata angrily saying that someone of the stature of Swaraj or Advani should’ve been the candidate and BJP only picked Kovind because he was a ‘leader of the BJP’s Dalit Morcha’.

Meanwhile, a red-faced Left complained that BJP hadn’t mentioned their candidate when they came calling, and their Opposition as of now, is simply based on Kovind’s RSS affiliation.

On the other hand, Congress in a slightly bizarre press conference refused to comment on the merits and demerits of the Kovind and sources indicate that they might discuss a candidate on June 22 with the Left.

Even if the Grand Old Party and Left come up with a consensus candidate, it’s hard to see how he or she could get the numbers with BJP being backed by several non-NDA allies.

Of course, it’s important to remember that there is no whip in presidential elections and that parties can’t dictate their members to vote in a particular manner, but it’s hard to imagine any BJP MP or MLA will look to garner Amit Shah’s ire in a contest which looks over even before it has begun.

As things stand now, we are likely to get our second Dalit president and there’s absolutely nothing the Opposition can do to counter it.