The Opposition has picked veteran Congress leader Margaret Alva as its vice presidential pick. Announcing the development, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said on Sunday, “The Opposition candidate for the post of Vice President of India will be Margaret Alva.”
Pawar further said that 17 parties are on board for this unanimous decision. “Our collective thinking is Alva will file VP nomination on Tuesday,” he added.
Alva (80) would file her nomination papers on Tuesday.
The election for the Vice Presidential elections is scheduled to be held on August 6. The nomination process for the same started on July 5 and July 19 is the last date for filing nominations.
"We are trying to contact Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal. Last time they supported our joint presidential candidate," he said, adding that even JMM is together with opposition parties in this election.
Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut said, "We are all together in this election".
Among the attendees were Congress' Mallikarjun Kharge and Jairam Ramesh, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury, CPI's D Raja and Binoy Viswam, Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut, DMK's T R Baalu and Tiruchi Siva, SP's Ram Gopal Yadav, MDMK's Vaiko and TRS' K Keshava Rao.
The RJD's A D Singh, IMUL's E T Mohammed Basheer and Kerala Congress (M)'s Jose K. Mani were also present.
The numbers in the electoral college are firmly stacked in favour of the ruling NDA combine.
On Saturday, Bharatiya Janata Party named Jagdeep Dhankhar, governor of West Bengal state, as its Vice Presidential candidate.
Dhankhar, who is 71, was elected as a lawmaker in 1988 from a constituency in Rajasthan, also his home state, according to information available on West Bengal Raj Bhavan website.
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who was until recently the only Muslim face in Modi’s cabinet, was reported to be among possible candidates for the Vice President’s role.
The nation’s vice president takes over in the event of the death, resignation or removal of the president and is also chairman of the upper house of parliament, or Rajya Sabha. The president is the supreme commander of India’s armed forces and oversees creation of a government in case of a hung parliament.
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