Gopalkrishna Gandhi is Opposition pick for VP
new delhi — Former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi, a grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, was on Tuesday named the opposition candidate for the post of Vice-President by the Congress and 17 other parties, including the JD-U, which is backing the BJP candidate in the President’s election.
Setting the stage for a contest with BJP-led NDA, which is expected to announce its nominee soon, Congress President Sonia Gandhi announced the name of Gandhi, a former Indian envoy to South Africa and Sri Lanka, at a meeting of the opposition parties here at Parliament Library Building chaired by her.
“Gopalkrishna Gandhi is the opposition candidate for the Vice Presidential election. We have spoken to him and he has agreed to be the opposition candidate,” she said with JD-U leader Sharad Yadav seated on her left. The JD-U had broken ranks with the opposition and chosen to back Ram Nath Kovind, the NDA candidate, in the Presidential election.
Gopalkrishna Gandhi’s name was proposed at the meeting by the Trinamool Congress and backed by all the parties present. No other name was discussed, opposition leaders said.
The declaration of the name of Gandhi, a secretary to then president R. Venkataraman, has set the stage for the contest for the Vice President’s office on August 5.
Gandhi, who belonged to the IAS, was the Indian High Commissioner to South Africa and Sri Lanka. Earlier, Gandhi’s name did the rounds as the opposition candidate in the Presidential election. —