Ex-Guv Margaret Alva Oppn’s vice-presidential candidate
NEW DELHI: Opposition parties on Sunday decided to field former Rajasthan Governor Margaret Alva as their joint candidate for the Vice-Presidential election to take on NDA nominee Jagdeep Dhankhar.
The decision to field Alva was taken at a meeting of leaders of 17 parties at the residence of NCP supremo Sharad Pawar.
However, hours after Pawar announced her candidature, Naveen Patnaik-led BJD and YSRCP extended support to Dhankhar, who is now assured of a comfortable win in the August 6 election.
Alva (80) would file her nomination papers on Tuesday, July 19 - the last date for filing nominations.
“We have unanimously decided to field Margaret Alva as our joint candidate for the post of Vice President,” Pawar announced after the two-hour meeting.
“Our collective thinking is Alva will file VP nomination on Tuesday,” he added.
He said a total of 17 parties have unanimously taken the decision to field her and with the support of Trinamool Congress and Aam Aadmi Party, she will be the joint candidate of a total of 19 parties.
“We are trying to contact Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal. Last time they supported our joint presidential candidate,” he said, adding that even JMM is together with opposition parties in this election.
Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut said, “We are all together in this election”.
Alva thanked all the opposition parties for the faith they have put in her by making her their joint candidate.
The Congress veteran’s political career spanned over four decades in the grand old party, starting as a young Congress worker and retiring as the Governor. Suave and soft-spoken Alva has held many positions in the party as well as the government during Congress rule. She has also worked with four prime ministers.
“It is a privilege and an honour 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,” Alva tweeted soon after the opposition parties announced her name.
Among the attendees at today’s meeting at Pawar’s residence 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 T R Baalu and Tiruchi Siva, SP’s Ram Gopal Yadav, MDMK’s Vaiko and TRS’ K Keshava Rao.
The RJD’s A D Singh, IMUL’s E T Mohammed Basheer and Kerala Congress (M)’s Jose K. Mani were also present. The TMC was absent at the meeting. Pawar said he had tried to contact Mamata Banerjee but she was busy in a meeting.
The numbers in the electoral college are firmly stacked in favour of the ruling NDA combine and its candidate Dhankar.
Unlike the presidential election when the opposition camp had announced their nominee Yashwant Sinha ahead of NDA’s Droupadi Murmu,...
leading to several nonBJP parties including even Congress allies Shiv Sena and the JMM veering towards Murmu, this time the likeminded parties wanted to wait for the announcement of the NDA candidate.
“After Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to (Odisha chief minister) Naveen babu, it has been decided that the party will support Dhankhar,” senior BJD leader Pinaki Misra said. BJD has supported Murmu too.
Alva, 80, has a political career spanning over four decades during which she occupied several positions including a five-time Congress MP, a union minister and then governor.
While she was always close to Sonia, her son Nikhil Alva also served in Rahul Gandhi’s closest team of advisors when the latter was Congress President until his resignation after the party’s May 2019 embarrassing loss.
She was elected to the
Rajya Sabha for the first time in 1974 at the age of 32 years and remained in the upper house for four terms until 1998. She won her first Lok Sabha election from Karnataka and served as a member of the 13th Lok Sabha.
Alva was made Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs by then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1984 when she was just 42.
Through her three decades in Parliament as MP and later minister, Alva piloted major legislative amendments on women’s rights, reservation for women in local bodies, equal remuneration, marriage laws and Dowry Prohibition Amendment Act.
Her first political setback came in 2004 when she lost the Lok Sabha election and was appointed adviser to the Bureau of Parliamentary Studies and Training, a body established to improve the levels of the legislative function of Parliament and state legislatures.
Alva was also made AICC general secretary in charge of crucial states Maharashtra, Punjab and Haryana.
She also went on to become the first woman governor of Uttarakhand besides serving as governor of Goa, Gujarat and Rajasthan.
A little-known fact about Alva is that she was encouraged to enter politics by her father-in-law Joachim Alva and mother-in-law Violet Alva.