A diplomat-turned-politician and Congress' Dalit face, Meira Kumar is Opposition's Presidential candidate. She has seen a steady rise in echelons of power since her electoral debut in the mid-eighties.
Daughter of former Deputy Prime Minister Jagjivan Ram, she became the first woman to occupy the office of the Lok Sabha Speaker in 2009.
Known for her soft-spoken demeanour, Kumar began her career in the Indian Foreign Service(IFS) job. She quit the service to fight the Lok Sabha polls in 1985, a year before her father's death.
She was elected to Lok Sabha for the first time from Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh in 1985, defeating top dalit leaders Mayawati and Ram Vilas Paswan.
She hold an MA and an LLB degree, along with an advanced diploma in Spanish.
The landslide win in Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls has already ensured that National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has the numbers on their side. On the top of it, political pundits are calling NDA’s move to select Ram Nath Kovind – a BJP veteran from the Dalit community – a political masterstroke.
Can the Congress counter Modi’s move by installing a Dalit woman as its face in the presidential election.
Video Editor: Sandeep Suman
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