Opposition to decide on its Vice-President candidate

NEW DELHI: Much like the strategy for the presidential election, the Opposition is working on a joint candidate for the Vice Presidential poll.

Though deliberations are going on among the like-minded parties, no candidate has been finalised yet.

When asked, Congress spokesperson Gaurav Vallabh said, "We will tell you at an appropriate time."

The opposition is contemplating putting up a joint candidate so that it can pose some challenge to the ruling party candidate.

Sources in the opposition said a joint candidate will be fielded for the post. However, the opposition has very less chance to do so since in this election the voters are the members of Parliament only and the BJP has a huge mandate in the Lower House while in the Upper House it is the single largest party having more than 95 seats.

Sources said that in view of the political turmoil in Maharashtra, someone from the state could be fielded from the opposition camp. The opposition in the Presidential election has fielded Yashwant Sinha but not all the opposition parties have backed him.

In the last election, the opposition fielded Gopalkrishna Gandhi, but he lost to Venkaiah Naidu. This time also Gandhi's name was proposed for the Presidential candidate but he declined the offer.

Venkaiah Naidu in 2017 polled 516 votes defeating the opposition's Gopalkrishna Gandhi, who could manage only 244 votes.

The Vice Presidential election which is scheduled to be held on August 6 (Saturday). The date on which counting, if required, will be taken on the same day, said the Election Commission in an official statement.