Meira Kumar files paper in company of Sonia Gandhi, Sharad Pawar, Sitaram Yechury

NEW DELHI: Former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar filed her nomination papers to contest the presidential election in the presence of top Congress leadership and other opposition leaders.

Flanked by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former PM Manmohan Singh, 72-year-old Kumar filed her nomination papers. Leaders of 16 Opposition parties were present and proposed Kumar’s name in the nomination papers.

Accompanying the former Lok Sabha speaker as she filed her nomination in Parliament House were a host of opposition leaders, including NCP’s Sharad Pawar and CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury.

“For us, it is a battle of ideologies, principles and truth and we will fight it,” Gandhi said after the nomination filing. In a show of strength, all Congress’ chief ministers — Amarinder Singh, Siddharamaiah, Virbhadra Singh, V Narayanasamy, Mukul Sangma — were present in Parliament for filing of papers.

The party’s top brass was represented by Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel, Mallikarjun Kharge and Ambika Soni. Former CMs Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Ashok Gehlot, Digvijaya Singh attended the event as well.

Also present were CPI’s D Raja, DMK’s Kanimozhi, SP’s Naresh Agrawal, BSP’s Satish Chandra Misra, NCP’s Tariq Anwar, JMM’s Sanjeev Kumar and TMC’s Derek O’Brien.

“From today, our fight of ideology has started. This ideology is based on democratic values, inclusiveness in society, freedom of the press and individuals, end of poverty, transparency and destruction of caste structure,” Kumar said after filing her papers.