VP poll: Jaswant Singh confident of AIADMK, BJD support

NDA's Vice Presidential nominee Jaswant Singh has expressed confidence that AIADMK supremo J Jayalalitha and BJD chief Naveen Patnaik will extend their support to his candidature.

"I do believe in that. And I bank on that...I am assured (of their support)...Yes, I am (confident)," Singh told Karan Thapar on the Devil's Advocate programme on CNN-IBN. He was replying to a question if AIADMK and BJD, which had backed the candidature of P A Sangma in the Presidential poll, will extend their support to him in the Vice Presidential poll.

Asked about their continued silence on the issue, Singh said, "I have no difficulty with (their) silence." On if it would be embarrassing if no one other than NDA parties backed his candidature, the BJP leader said, "Why don't you wait until the 7th of August...don't jump to conclusions."

On if he was apprehensive following charges of Sangma about use of allurements and threats by UPA during the Presidential poll, he said, "I am not. I don't lend myself to such apprehensions. I am adult enough to know the reality of India's political life.

"But it is much better for me not to totter my thinking with that kind of detail," he said.