Margaret Alva is Opposition's pick for Vice President

80-year-old Alva hails from Karnataka and was a minister in the Rajiv Gandhi and P V Narasimha Rao governments

Opposition on Sunday chose veteran politician and former Governor Margaret Alva to take on NDA’s Jagdeep Dhankar in the August 6 Vice Presidential election, which is stacked heavily in the latter’s favour owing to the NDA’s numbers in Parliament.

The decision to field 80-year-old Alva, who hails from Karnataka and was a minister in the Rajiv Gandhi and P V Narasimha Rao governments, was taken at a meeting of senior Opposition leaders at the residence of NCP chief Sharad Pawar.

While 17 parties, including the Shiv Sena, sent leaders for the meeting, the absence of Trinamool Congress and AAP stood apart. Opposition leaders’ attempt to reach out to West Bengal chief and Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee during the meeting did not fructify as her aides said she was in an official digital meeting.

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"We have unanimously decided to field Margaret Alva as our joint candidate for the post of Vice President," Pawar told a press conference soon after the meeting, which saw the attendance of Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI General Secretary D Raja, DMK’s TR Baalu and SP’s Ramgopal Yadav among others.

Representatives of MDMK, TRS, RJD, Muslim Leauge, RSP and Kerala Congress (M) were also among those who attended the meeting.

Pawar said, “We are trying to contact Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal. Last time they supported our joint presidential candidate. JMM is also together with us.”

Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut said, “We are all together in this election", as questions were raised about his party breaking ranks with the Opposition to support NDA in the Presidential elections.

Alva will file the nomination papers on Tuesday in Parliament House.

The numbers are stacked against Alva as the electoral college — consisting of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs — is dominated by the ruling NDA.

The BJP-led NDA’s candidate could get a minimum of 455, – 359 in Lok Sabha and 116 in Rajya Sabha, and it could shoot to 525 in the Vice Presidential elections if parties like YSR Congress, BJD, BSP, JD(S) and Akali Dal, which pledged support for its Presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu, do so in the August 6 polls, too.

At the same time, the Opposition can get only 256 votes – 154 from Lok Sabha and 102 from Rajya Sabha. Shiv Sena, which has 22 MPs, attended the Opposition meet that chose Alva as their candidate.