The opposition on Sunday announced former Rajasthan governor Margaret Alva as its candidate for the post of vice-president. Addressing the media after the meeting of 17 opposition parties, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said, “Opposition’s candidate for the post of Vice President India To be Margaret Alva.”
Alva was the 20th governor of Rajasthan – the same state NDA’s vice-president candidate Jagdeep Dhankhar. Apart from being a cabinet minister, he has also served as the 17th Governor of Goa, 23rd Governor of Gujarat and 4th Governor of Uttarakhand.
Alva was made the candidate in the opposition meeting held at Pawar’s residence. Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, NCP’s Supriya Sule, SP’s Ram Gopal Yadav, CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury, RJD’s AD Singh, senior Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Jairam Ramesh among others attended the meeting.
However, TMC and AAP did not attend the meeting. “We tried to contact West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee But she was busy in some conference. We also tried to contact Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. He announced his support (for Yashwant Sinha) a few days back and will announce his support (for Margaret Alva) soon,” Pawar said.
The NDA on Saturday nominated West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, a Jat leader from Rajasthan with socialist background, as its vice-president.
The election of Dhankhar, who is also the ex-officio Speaker of the Rajya Sabha, as the Deputy Speaker is almost certain as the BJP has a majority in the electoral college consisting of members from the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. The BJP alone has 394 MPs out of the current strength of 780 in Parliament, which is over 390 of the majority.
By making Dhankhar, a Jat, and a learned MLA, its candidate for VP, the BJP has attempted to create a deep rift within the opposition parties, which claim themselves to represent the Jat community in various states, primarily Haryana. , in Uttar Pradesh. , Punjab and Rajasthan, comes under Dhankhar state.
For the 16th Vice Presidential election, 233 elected members of Rajya Sabha, 12 nominated members of Rajya Sabha and 543 elected members of Lok Sabha will vote.
(with PTI inputs)
read all breaking news, today’s fresh newswatch top videos And live TV Here.