Hyderabad: BJP’s presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind will get majority of votes in the two Telugu states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh as the ruling parties in both the states have pledged their support to him. In addition the opposition YSR Congress party has also announced its support to the Dalit candidate making him the unanimous choice of elected representatives in Andhra Pradesh.

With this 90 per cent of the total votes of the two states are committed in support of Kovind.

Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao declared his support to Kovind after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to him over phone last evening. According to an official press release from the Chief Minister’s office the Prime Minister gave KCR to credit of BJP and NDA choosing a Dalit as its nominee for the highest constitutional post in the country.

“As per your suggestion we have decided upon a Dalit candidate for the Presidential post”, the press release quoted the Prime Minister as telling KCR while requesting for his support.

The Chief Minister initially sought some time from the Prime Minister and after consulting senior party leaders he confirmed TRS’ support to Mr Kovind.

“A prominent Dalit as president is a good decision and we support his candidature”, KCR said.

TRS’s support will give a big boost to the NDA in the electoral college which elects president as the TRS with 90 MLAs and 17 MPs has a value of 23200 votes or 1.5 per cent of the vote pool of 1.09 milllion votes.

The president is elected by the members of the state assemblies and both the Houses of Parliament.

Questions had arose about the TRS support to the BJP candidate recently as the criticism by the BJP national president Amit Shah’s scathing attack in the KCR government had created a lot of bad blood between the two parties.

However the choice of a Dalit candidate by the BJP seems to have made it a fait accomply for the TRS to go with the BJP.

KCR was under pressure from his critics over his failure in keeping the old promise of making a Dalit the first Chief Minister of separate Telangana state. Now he will have something in his hand to reclaim the card of Dalit messiah by taking credit for pushing for a Dalit as president.

Meanwhile in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh it will be a rare political unity between the ruling Telugu Desam and opposition YSRCP to support the BJP candidate.

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Chief Minister N Chandra Babu Naidu and BJP President Amit Shah spoke to Ysrcp president YS Jaganmohan Reddy and sought their support.

Additionally Modi also gave responsibility to Chandrababu to speak to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and seek her support.

In Andhra Pradesh the ruling TDP has 105 MLAs and 22 MPs while opposition YSRCP has 66 MLAs and 60 MPs. All these votes will be in NDA’s kitty.