Cong counts on Sena for vice-prez polls

After securing support from Shiv Sena (SS), JD(U) and others for the UPA’s presidential election and creating rifts in the Opposition camp, the Congress aims a repeat show in the upcoming vice-presidential poll.

After securing support from Shiv Sena (SS), JD(U) and others for the UPA’s presidential election and creating rifts in the Opposition camp, the Congress aims a repeat show in the upcoming vice-presidential poll.

Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan told HT in Delhi, “We will seek their support for the UPA’s vice-presidential candidate as well. There is no harm if SS votes for our candidate.” Top Congress sources added Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) and the Left parties will again be approached for supporting the ruling dispensation's vice-presidential candidate.

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Chavan, however, made it clear that there is no possibility for extending this understanding to a full-fledged electoral alliance with the right-wing party. Similarly, the Congress is also not banking on formal ties with the JD(U) or even the Left parties (at the cost of Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress).

Even if realignment with these parties remain outside the realms of possibility, the Congress sees a rift in the Opposition camp as politically beneficial.

Congress sources are hopeful that Shiv Sena may toy with the idea of supporting the UPA’s vice-president candidate as well, as it is not very comfortable with its alliance partner’s performance in Maharashtra.