Presidential Election 2017: Ram Nath Kovind, Nitin Gadkari to meet Gujarat BJP MLAs today

Gandhinagar: NDA’s presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind will visit Gujarat on Saturday as part of his nation-wide tour to seek support from elected representatives. [caption id=“attachment_3758751” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Ram Nath Kovind. PTI[/caption] Though BJP president Amit Shah and the party’s state in-charge Bhupendra Yadav were also scheduled to arrive here along with Kovind, both have cancelled their visit as they have to attend a programme in Delhi, Gujarat BJP chief Jitu Vaghani said in a release on Friday. Instead, Union minister Nitin Gadkari and senior party leader Kailash Vijayvargiya will accompany Kovind, the release said. On 8 July, the state unit of the BJP had announced that Kovind and Shah would visit Gujarat on 11 July. However, the party postponed the visit following the terrorist attack on a bus in Jammu and Kashmir on 10 July in which seven pilgrims from Gujarat and Maharashtra were killed. As per the release, Kovind will be welcomed at the airport by Chief Minister of Gujarat Vijay Rupani, his deputy Nitin Patel, several ministers and senior BJP leaders. Kovind will then head to Gandhinagar, where he will hold a meeting with BJP MP from Gujarat, state legislators and the party’s BJP’s core committee members regarding the upcoming presidential election. The opposition’s presidential candidate and former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar had launched her campaign from the Sabarmati Ashram on 22 Juny. The presidential election is scheduled for 17 July and the counting of votes will take place on 20 July.