New Delhi
Joint opposition candidate for the vice presidential election Margaret Alva on Tuesday filed her nomination papers for the post and was accompanied by a host of leaders from various parties. Soon after she filed her nomination papers, Alva said elections do not frighten her and winning and losing is a part of life but the trust of members of both houses of Parliament will help her bring people together, find common solutions and help build a strong and united India. The vice presidential poll will be held on August 6 to elect the successor to M Venkaiah Naidu, whose term ends on August 10. Alva, 80, is pitted against NDA’s Jagdeep Dhankhar, who resigned as West Bengal governor after being nominated on Saturday evening. Several opposition leaders, including Congress’ Rahul Gandhi, NCP’s Sharad Pawar, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, were present during her nomination filing. Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut, Samajwadi Party’s Ram Gopal Yadav, DMK’s Tiruchi Siva, CPI-M’s Sitaram Yechury, CPI’s D Raja and MDMK’s Vaiko were also present during the nomination filing. No leader from the Trinamool Congress or the Aam Aadmi Party was present during the nomination filing of the joint opposition candidate. Both the parties were not represented at the opposition meeting that decided on fielding Alva as their consensus candidate, but Pawar had said that he is in touch with both TMC leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as well as AAP convener and Delhi Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. Tuesday is the last date for submission of nominations for the vice presidential election.
