Vandana Chavan likely to be Oppn's candidate for Dy Chairman post

New Delhi: With just two days left for the election of Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman, the Opposition will be announcing its candidate on Tuesday evening. 

According to reports, Opposition is likely to field 57-year-old member of Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Vandana Chavan for the post. 

Though media reports say that Vandana Chavan has been picked up as the Opposition candidate for the post, talking to reporters Chavan said, “I would be very happy if any woman is elected as Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha, but nothing has been decided yet. Opposition meetings are going on, we should wait.” 

According to Opposition sources, Tiruchi Siva of DMK, Vandana Chavan of NCP and nominated member K T S Tulsi are front-runners for the post. 

Vandana Chavan is a former Mayor of Pune.

Hectic meetings are being held since today morning which is the last date of filing of nomination for the post. 

The ruling NDA has fielded 62-year-old Harivansh Narayan Singh, first-time lawmaker from ally Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United.

To win in the 245-member house, a candidate needs 123 votes, but any abstention will bring down the majority mark.

The current strength of Rajya Sabha is 244 and support of 123 members would be needed for a win in the full house.

The BJP is the largest party in the house with 73 members. Its allies JD(U), Shiv Sena, Akali Dal have six, three and three members, respectively. 

Besides the nominated and independent members affiliated to it, the BJP is banking on the support of 13, nine, six and two members of the AIADMK, BJD, TRS, YSR Congress respectively, its floor managers said. If all four parties support the NDA candidate, then the numbers add up to 126. 

However, if parties like BJD or TRS abstain from voting, then things will become more precarious for the ruling alliance. 
Both these parties had abstained during a vote on the recent motion of no-confidence against the government in the Lok Sabha while the AIADMK had voted with the treasury benches. 

The BJP is hoping to get support of four of the six independent members and three of the four nominated members. The Congress has 50 members.

(With PTI inputs)