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Margaret Alva is Opposition's choice for Vice President, says Sharad Pawar
Margaret Alva: Addressing a press conference, Pawar said 17 parties are on board for this unanimous decision.
Senior Congress leader and former governor Margaret Alva will be the Opposition's joint candidate for Vice President, said NCP president Sharad Pawar on Sunday.
The announcement came a day after the BJP-led NDA said West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar will be its candidate for the country's second-most important office.
Alva (80), a former Union minister, would file her nomination on Tuesday, July 19, the last date for filing papers for the August 6 election.
Also read | Who is Margaret Alva, Opposition candidate for Vice-presidential polls?
Addressing a press conference after holding a meeting of Opposition leaders at his residence, Pawar said 17 parties are on board for this unanimous decision. “Our collective thinking is Alva will file VP nomination on Tuesday,” the veteran politician said.
In a tweet, Alva said it was a privilege and honour for her to be nominated as the candidate of the joint opposition for the post of Vice President of India. “I accept this nomination with great humility and thank the leaders of the opposition for the faith they’ve put in me. Jai Hind,” she further wrote.
Pawar said that besides the 17 parties, the support of Trinamool Congress and Aam Aadmi Party will make Alva the joint candidate of a total of 19 parties. Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said the Opposition is united in this election.
"We are trying to contact Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal. Last time, they supported our joint presidential candidate," he said, adding that the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) is also together with the Opposition 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 TR Baalu and Tiruchi Siva, SP's Ram Gopal Yadav, MDMK's Vaiko and TRS' K Keshava Rao.
The RJD's AD Singh, IMUL's ET Mohammed Basheer and Kerala Congress (M)'s Jose K Mani were also present.
(With inputs from agencies)
