Before heading to Gandhinagar to meet MPs, MLAs, and core committee members of the ruling BJP, Kovind was accorded grand welcome at the airport here in the presence of Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel.
Union minister Nitin Gadkari and senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya were accompanying Kovind.
Kovind was felicitated by the leaders of the Koli community to which he belongs.
In a brief address at the airport soon after landing here, Kovind said Gujarat is his "second home" after Uttar Pradesh, his home state.
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"Since 1970, I used to come to south Gujarat, in Surat and Valsad. And after that, I have visited all of Saurashtra. I some time say that Gujarat is my second state. Uttar Pradesh is my home state, and when I started my contact tour (sampark yatra) as a presidential candidate, on the first day I went to my Maa, my Matrubhumi (home state) Uttar Pradesh," he said.
"It is said that when you start out for a big work, pious work, you visit two houses. First is where you were born, and second the state which I have considered as my home state, which is Gujarat," the ex-Bihar Governor said.
He also said he will get blessings from people of Gujarat.
BJP president Amit Shah and state party in-charge Bhupendra Yadav were also scheduled to arrive here with Kovind but had to cancel their tour as they had to attend a programme in Delhi, the party sources said.
The electoral college, which elects the president through the system of proportional representation, comprises elected MPs and members of state legislative assemblies.
Interestingly, Opposition Presidential nominee Meira Kumar had started her nation-wide campaign from the Sabarmati Ashram here.