As he filed his nomination papers, the Opposition's vice-presidential candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi justified his efforts to save Yakub Memon, a convict in the Mumbai blast case from the gallows. He said that the practice of capital punishment was medieval and wrong. In response to criticism from the NDA, particularly the Shiv Sena, Mr Gandhi said Mahatma Gandhi and Babasaheb Ambedkar were his inspiration and they were against death penalty and wanted it abolished.
