Opposition's Margaret Alva to take on NDA’s Jagdeep Dhankar in VP election

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 leaders, including from the Shiv Sena, attended 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.

"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.

Parties that support Alva’s candidature also include RJD, TRS, VCK, Muslim League, Shiv Sena, RSP, MDMK, Kerala Congress, JMM, RLD and National Conference.

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…here in this alliance, we will support Margaret Alva," as questions were raised about his party breaking ranks with the Opposition to support the NDA in the Presidential elections.

Alva, whose name was proposed in the meeting by Yechury, will file the nomination papers on Tuesday in Parliament House. Sources said in the run up to the meeting, Mamata had in early July suggested the name of PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti as candidate but it did not move forward, as they apprehended that it could have a repeat of Farooq Abdullah episode when he rejected the offer to contest President polls.

At the meeting, sources said, Pawar started the meeting by saying that the Opposition should stand united. As soon as Yechury suggested, one of the leaders expressed apprehension about the repeat of the episode involving Gopalkrishna Gandhi, who declined the Opposition offer to contest the Presidential election at the last minute.

Sources said one of the leaders then contacted Alva, who told the meeting that if there is unanimity on her name, she will contest the battle.

Opposition leaders started discussing Alva’s name in the first week of July after Yechury informally discussed it with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Pawar and both agreed to the proposal, sources said.

Asked about Alva’s candidature, a senior Opposition leader said she comes from a family linked to the freedom struggle and her family members had rich legislative experience. She herself was a multiple time MP and minister besides being Governor of Rajasthan and Uttarakhand.