Presidential Elections: Naidu hits out at Congress for 'ideology' comment, questions emergency

Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu will accompany Ram Nath Kovind to Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday, as part of the NDA presidential candidate's nationwide tour to seek support of lawmakers for the July 17 election.

Naidu will also go to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh with Kovind on July 4. This was shared by Naidu with the media here.

Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members, besides MLAs from all state assemblies, comprise the electoral college, totalling 10,98,882 votes.

The vote value of a member of the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha is 708, while that of an MLA would depend on the population of the state he or she represents.

Meanwhile, Naidu hit out at the Congress for saying that it would contest the presidential election based on ideology. "Issue in presidential election is commitment to the Constitution. Some friends are confusing by talking about ideology. Extending tenure of Parliament and imposing Emergency is the ideology," he said.

Taking at a dig at opposition presidential candidate Meira Kumar, Naidu said, "Congress party remembers conscience conveniently and even now it has conveniently asked the collegium to go for conscience vote".

Making an emotional appeal to MPs and MLAs, Kumar had written to them to cast their votes with their "inner conscience".