Why BJP wants its man to be the vice-president

Indian parliamentarians will vote on August 5 to elect a new vice-president, a post largely seen as ceremonial with limited administrative powers.

The vote, however, is crucial for the ruling BJP, which will field a leader from within its ranks for the post.

Sources in the party say a candidate will be picked based on his or her ability to run Rajya Sabha, of which the vice-president is also the ex-officio chairman.

There are several reasons why the BJP will try to get its man at the helm of affairs.

Since the party is in a minority in Rajya Sabha and a sense of unease exists in its relationship with current chairman Hamid Ansari, an appointee of the UPA, who made several remarks that did not go well with the Narendra Modi government, a man of the party’s choice will limit instances of strain between the chair and the treasury.

Several reform agendas of the Narendra Modi government are also stuck in the Upper House.

With less than two years to go for the next general election, the effective time that the government has in its hands is about 100 working days of Parliament.

Modi will attempt to get the bills cleared at the earliest so that most of them are executed before the next election bells ring.

As chairman of the upper house, the vice-president is the in charge of the Rajya Sabha television.

Leaders in the ruling camp are not happy with the way Rajya

The Opposition’s presidential candidate, Meira Kumar, visited Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad on Friday to launch her campaign for the polls.

“Presidential elections should be above caste and community lines. I’m beginning my campaign after paying tributes to Mahatma Gandhi,” said the former Lok Sabha Speaker.

“Visiting Sabarmati gives you strength… My fight is to uphold Gandhi’s ideology. I have come to gain the strength for this fight,” said Kumar.

“There are attempts to level the election as a Dalit versus Dalit contest. It was from Gujarat that the ideology of Gandhiji spread across the country and world. That is why I have come here to make people realise that we fight for our ideologies,” she said. HTC

Sabha TV has functioned under Ansari, which has sometimes been critical of government policies.

The new vice-president will give the ruling side an opportunity to fine tune the operations of the channel.