NDA Authorises PM Modi, JP Nadda To Pick Its Veep Candidate

The National Democratic Alliance on Thursday authorised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president J P Nadda to pick the ruling bloc's vice presidential candidate, as the Election Commission kick-started the nomination process for the poll by issuing a notification.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the alliance leaders took a unanimous decision to authorise Modi and Nadda, who are Leaders of the House in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha respectively as well, to decide on their candidate.

The alliance candidate's election to the constitutional position is a foregone conclusion due to the NDA's comfortable majority in the electoral college, which comprises members of the two Houses.

Rijiju said no discussion was held on the likely choices.

Asked if the ruling alliance will reach out to the Opposition to evolve a consensus on the next vice president, he told reporters that as of now Modi and Nadda have been authorised to identify the alliance's candidate.

He said, "There are certain conventions. If opposition parties come and discuss with us, we will always discuss with them. But this is a constitutional process which we have to do." Union ministers Rajnath Singh, who chaired the meeting, and Amit Shah besides Nadda and Rijiju from the BJP, JD(U)'s Lalan Singh, Shiv Sena's Shrikant Shinde, TDP's Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu, and Chirag Paswan of LJP (Ram Vilas) were among those who attended the meeting.

Sources said Shah sought the opinion of allies as several of them, including Lalan Singh (JD-U), NCP's Praful Patel and AIADMK's M Thambidurai and G K Vasan of TMC (Moopnar) expressed their support to a unanimous choice.

A host of chief ministers, especially from allies like Andhra Pradesh's N Chandrababu Naidu, are expected to be in the national capital to join the nomination-filing process for the NDA candidate.

Shiv Sena leader and Maharashtra Deputy CM Eknath Shinde and his NCP counterpart Ajit Pawar are likely to be present as well.

BJP allies like Anupriya Patel and Upendra Kushwaha were also part of the confabulations besides leaders from other smaller parties.

Against the maximum strength of 788, the effective strength of the two Houses is 781 due to one vacancy in the Lower House and six in the Upper House, including one caused by the recent death of former Jharkhand chief minister Shibu Soren.

The ruling NDA's strength is around 422, comfortably above the majority mark of 391.

INDIA bloc parties have indicated that they will name their candidate as well to send out a message of their uncompromising opposition to the government at a time the already sharp differences between the two alliances have deepened over the Opposition's stir against the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar.

Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has been spearheading a campaign, alleging that the Election Commission has been colluding with the BJP to rig elections.

The last date of filing of nomination for vice president is August 21, and the election will be held on September 9 in case the opposition fields a rival candidate against the NDA.

The election has been necessitated following the abrupt resignation of then-Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on July 21.

Though he had resigned citing health reasons, his departure is believed to have been triggered by the souring of his ties with the government, making his continuation untenable.

The vice president is ex-officio chairman of the Rajya Sabha, occupying a key position critical to the government agenda in Parliament.

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