The Janata Dal (Secular) will abstain from voting in Friday’s vice-presidential poll and maintain an equidistance from both the Congress and the BJP.

“The national executive of the Janata Dal (Secular) has committed itself time and again to maintaining an equidistance from both the Congress and BJP at the national level,” JD(S) president and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda said, announcing his party’s decision.

The party will also not support the Third Front candidate.

JD(S) has four members in Parliament — two each in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. It had maintained a similar stand in the presidential poll. Gowda said the party would, however, not issue any whip to its MPs.

Meanwhile, the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) or the Third Front, consisting of seven regional parties, on Thursday said its members would not cast any second preferential vote in the vice-presidential election and unitedly support the UNPA candidate Rasheed Masood.

BJP-SENA PATCH UP
New Delhi, dhns: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena have patched up with each other as former Lok Sabha speaker and senior Sena leader Manohar Joshi attended  a meeting of NDA MPs on Wednesday and assured support to the NDA Vice-Presidential candidate Najma Heptullah.

According to sources, the ice was broken with former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and the Sena Supremo Bal Thackrey speaking to each other and cooling the bad tempers which had risen high last month with Sena deciding to support “a Maharashtrian” presidential candidate as against the NDA supported Bhairon Singh Sekhawat. Leaders of both parties decided to put the issue behind them and look forward to continued alliance between the two parties, they said.