NDA to pick Vice President candidate today, Venkaiah Naidu leads race

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday congratulated NDA presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind “in advance”, on the eve of the July 17 presidential election, and urged ruling alliance MPs to cast their vote.

Welcoming Mr Kovind to the NDA meeting, the Prime Minister recalled how Mr Kovind had worked as Morarji Desai’s “sahyogi” when Desai was PM, and said the government will offer all “sahyog” (cooperation) to him. The PM also asked NDA MPs to reach out to the “new millennial voters”, those born in 2000 and after, and said they should be welcomed and made aware of their responsibilities.

The suspense over the NDA’s candidate for vice-president could, meanwhile, end on Monday when the BJP’s parliamentary board is expected to meet. The Opposition parties have already chosen Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi as their joint nominee for vice-president.

While some names are doing the rounds in the BJP for the post, including that of Union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu, sources said the leadership could also announce a “surprise candidate” as it did in the presidential election with former Bihar governor Ram Nath Kovind. The election for vice-president will be held on August 5, and Tuesday is the last day of filing the nominations.

Several names are doing the rounds in the BJP for the second-highest constitutional post, and speculation is rife that Mr M. Venkaiah Naidu is being regarded as the front-runner, even though Mr Naidu had himself rejected such suggestions. BJP president Amit Shah had recently met the RSS top brass on the issue.

The other names that are circulating include former Gujarat CM Anandiben Patel, Manipur governor Najma Heptullah, Maharashtra governor C. Vidyasagar Rao, Madhubani MP Hukum Narayan Yadav and senior leader O. Rajagopal.

The parliamentary board meeting on Monday will also be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The ruling alliance has an overwhelming majority in the electoral college for vice-president, which consists of the 790 MPs of the two Houses of Parliament.

On Sunday, at the NDA parliamentary party meeting, Mr Modi also asked leaders to promote and highlight the 75th anniversary of the Quit India movement and hold events and programme about it from August 9 to 15. He also pitched for discussions and programmes for five years till August 15, 2022, the 75th Independence Day, aimed at pro-poor programmes and a good governance agenda.

With the numbers favouring Mr Kovind in Monday’s presidential election, against the Opposition’s candidate Meira Kumar, the result is a foregone conclusion as nearly two-thirds of the electoral college is backing him, including some non-NDA parties.

Parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar made light of Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s call to MPs and MLAs for a “vote of conscience”, saying that not only had 40 parties supported Mr Kovind’s presidential bid, non-NDA chief ministers of states like Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Odisha had also announced their support.

“The way ahead is very clear,” he said, underlining the clear majority enjoyed by the NDA candidate. Apart from Mr Kumar, BJP chief Amit Shah and finance minister Arun Jaitley also addressed the MPs.