New Delhi, June 22: The Opposition held together today, beating back the threat of disintegration, and offered former Speaker Meira Kumar as a better qualified Dalit candidate for President than the NDA's largely unknown Ram Nath Kovind.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi made the announcement, describing it as a "totally unanimous decision" of the 17 Opposition parties that met in Delhi.

Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar had pushed for Sushil Kumar Shinde, but yielded after all the other parties preferred Meira.

Meira was picked over the former Union home minister primarily because the Opposition leaders wanted to give JDU leader Nitish Kumar a fitting reply for jumping ship, and dealing a blow to their efforts to forge a united front. The former Speaker is " Bihar ki beti (Bihar's daughter)", as Lalu Prasad pointed out, and is also a Dalit - knocking out the JDU's alibi for going with the NDA on the eve of the Opposition meeting.

"The Opposition's nominee for the President's post, Meira Kumar, is more capable and popular than the NDA candidate," BSP leader Mayawati said, moments after the candidature was announced. "The BSP will support Meira Kumar," she added.

Mayawati had earlier said the BSP would not be able to oppose Kovind unless the Opposition fielded a better Dalit candidate.

Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said Meira's "academic credentials, international exposure and political experience" made her the "most suitable candidate" for the post.

Daughter of veteran Dalit leader Babu Jagjivan Ram, who was a freedom fighter and former deputy Prime Minister, she studied law before entering the Indian Foreign Service. After serving as diplomat in several countries, she resigned to enter politics and was elected to the Lok Sabha five times. She was also a Congress general secretary, Union minister and the first woman Speaker of the Lok Sabha.

But the consensus around her name came with much hard work and political management. There were jitters in the Opposition camp when Pawar called a meeting of his party in the morning and Congress veterans Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ahmed Patel too joined in the afternoon, followed by CPM general Sitaram Yechury. Amid speculation of serious differences, information came out that Pawar was keen on a candidate from Maharashtra.

Around two hours before the final meeting started, a senior NCP leader told The Telegraph: "We are 100 per cent with the Opposition and the speculation about Pawar following Nitish Kumar is false."

He, however, admitted that Pawar was keen on Shinde because of the Maharashtra factor and that would be resolved at the evening meeting. This was viewed as a positive signal as Pawar himself agreed to attend the meeting along with Praful Patel and Tariq Anwar.

At the meeting, Sonia spoke of the initial deliberations for Opposition unity and lamented that "one party had left us". She did not propose any name and asked Pawar to start the discussions.

Pawar said three names were under consideration - Meira Kumar, Sushil Shinde and Bhalchandra Mungekar - and that the NCP would prefer either Shinde or Mungekar as they were from Maharashtra and he knew them personally as very good persons. He also referred to their credentials and experience.

But leaders of other parties who spoke after him demonstrated a clear preference for Meira, though none spoke against either Shinde or Mungekar. Being the Lok Sabha Speaker, she had a much better rapport with leaders cutting across party lines.

In the end, Pawar conceded after Ghulam Nabi Azad underlined the majority sentiment. No other names were discussed. The Left had been suggesting the name of Prakash Ambedkar, grandson of Bhimrao Ambedkar, in previous meetings but it did not come up today.

It was clarified at the meeting that Gopalkrishna Gandhi was in serious consideration but he himself had suggested that Meira would be a better candidate as the Dalit factor had become so critical after the government's choice.

Lalu Prasad forcefully supported Meira's candidature. Although no one spoke about Nitish at the meeting, many leaders privately expressed anguish at the JDU's decision to break away and described the reasons given by him for backing Kovind as bogus.

The Samajwadi Party and the BSP - two principal political parties from Uttar Pradesh, the state that Kovind belongs to - didn't make regionalism an issue. Like Mayawati, Samajwadi leader Ram Gopal Yadav too wholeheartedly extended support to Meira. Another party from Uttar Pradesh, Ajit Singh's INLD, joined the Opposition ranks today, making up for the JDU's exit.

The DMK, JMM, National Conference, AIMIM, AUDF, Kerala Congress, Forward Block, RSP and the IUML also fully backed Meira's candidature.

All these parties will file nomination papers for the joint Opposition candidate.

Meira expressed her gratitude to all the Opposition parties and said she was delighted by the demonstration of unity. "This unity represents coming together of forces which have strong ideological base. Going to contest as their representative," she said.