Margaret Alva named Opposition's Vice-President candidate

Following a meeting held at NCP chief Sharad Pawar's residence on Sunday, opposition leaders have decided to field Margaret Alva as thir joint vice presidential candidate for the August 6 poll.

Alva served as the 17th Governor of Goa, 23rd Governor of Gujarat, 20th Governor of Rajasthan and 4th Governors of Uttarakhand the until the end of her tenure in August 2014. She has formerly served as the Cabinet Minister.

Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh tweeted, “Margaret Alva, former Governor, former Union Minister, long time MP and very distinguished representative of India's wonderful diversity is the common Opposition candidate for Vice-President.”

Margaret Alva, former Governor, former Union Minister, long time MP and very distinguished representative of India's wonderful diversity is the common Opposition candidate for Vice-President.

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) July 17, 2022

The meeting at Pawar's residence was attended by all major opposition parties including the Congress, Shiv Sena, TMC, Left Front constituents, RJD, SP, and others.

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.

Unlike the presidential election when the opposition camp had announced Yashwant Sinha as their nominee ahead of NDA's Droupadi Murmu, leading to several non-BJP parties including even Congress allies Shiv Sena and the JMM veering towards Murmu.

This time the like-minded parties wanted to wait for the announcement of the NDA candidate.

West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar has been fielded by the NDA. The announcement was made on Saturday evening.

Dhankhar, a Jat leader from Rajasthan, could influence the electoral calculations in Rajasthan and Haryana which go to elections in 2023 and 2024 respectively.

The last date for filing of nominations for the VP election is July 19.