AMN / WEB DESK
Opposition parties on Sunday decided to field former Rajasthan governor Margaret Alva as their joint candidate for the Vice Presidential election.
Alva (80) would file her nomination papers on Tuesday, July 19 which is the last date for filing nominations for the August 6 election.
Briefing media after the meeting of opposition parties in New Delhi today, NCP Chief Sharad Pawar said, 17 parties are on board for this unanimous decision. He said, Mrs Alva will file the nomination on Tuesday.
Mrs Alva has been Member of Rajya Sabha four times and once of Lok Sabha. She has also served as Union Minister and Governor of Uttarakhand and Rajasthan.
“We have unanimously decided to field Margaret Alva as our joint candidate for the post of Vice President,” Pawar announced after the two-hour meeting.
“Our collective thinking is Alva will file VP nomination on Tuesday,” he added.
He said a total of 17 parties have unanimously taken the decision to field her and with the support of Trinamool Congress and Aam Aadmi Party, she will be the joint candidate of a total of 19 parties.
“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.