Naidu and Gandhi file nominations for V-P
NEW DELHI: Ruling NDA’s candidate M Venkaiah Naidu and Opposition-backed Gopalkrishna Gandhi filed their nominations for election to the Vice-President’s post on Tuesday, the last day for filing of papers for the August 5 poll.
Scrutiny of the nomination papers will be held on Wednesday.
In a show of strength, the top brass of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) accompanied Naidu when the senior BJP leader and four-time Rajya Sabha member went to file his nomination in Rajya Sabha SecretaryGeneral Shamsher K Sheriff ’s room.
Those who accompanied Naidu included Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah, several Cabinet Ministers like Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and Prakash Javadekar, besides veteran party leaders L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi.
A number of NDA leaders, including Lok Janshakti Party’s Ram Vilas Paswan, Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut and Anandrao Adsul, Shiromani Akali Dal’s Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Republican Party’s Ramdas Athawale and AIADMK’s V Maitreyan, were also present.
The Telugu Desam Party, Telangana Rashtra Samiti, YSR Congress and the Indian National Lok Dal are among the other parties extending support to Naidu.
Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi, a former West Bengal governor and a diplomat, also filed his nomination later.
He was accompanied by former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi and senior Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mallikarjun Kharge.
Addressing the media after filing his papers, Naidu said he no longer belonged to the BJP and would strive to “strengthen parliamentary democratic system”.
Urged by photojournalists to look left for a snap, Naidu retorted: “Neither am I in the left, nor right. I am at the centre.”