Shiv Sena MP slams Congress for picking Gopalkrishna Gandhi as vice presidential candidate

Mumbai city news: Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said the Shiv Sena will not extend its support to Gandhi

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut slammed the Congress on Monday for nominating former diplomat Gopalkrishna Gandhi as the vice presidential candidate of an alliance of 18 Opposition parties.

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut termed Gandhi’s nomination “an insult to the country”. (HT File Photo)

Reason: Gandhi had opposed 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon’s death sentence, said Raut.

Raut said the Shiv Sena will not extend its support to Gandhi. “Even after the plotters of the Mumbai 1993 blasts were given capital punishment, some people tried their best to get the death sentence commuted and show leniency. Gopalkrishna Gandhi was one of them. I think the Congress party is insulting the country by nominating such a person to a constitutional post. It is an insult to patriots and to the country’s sentiments,”he told the media.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will pick its vice presidential candidate in a parliamentary board meeting on Monday, with July 18 being the last date to file nominations. The vice presidential poll is scheduled for August 5. The electoral college for the vice presidential poll consists of 790 MPs of the two chambers of Parliament.

Shiv Sena has announced its support for National Democratic Alliance candidate Ram Nath Kovind for the presidential election currently underway.