Ansari has edge over Jaswant
7 Aug 2012 8:10 AM IST
As many as 787 members of parliament will vote on Tuesday to elect India’s 14th vice president. In the poll, UPA nominee and incumbent Hamid Ansari appears to have a clear edge over his rival Jaswant Singh, backed by the opposition NDA, according to sources. The result will be out Tuesday evening.
The sources claimed the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) nominee has the support of 500 out of the total 787 members in both houses of parliament, who constitute the electoral college for the vice presidential election.
The Lok Sabha has a total strength of 545 members, including speaker. It has two vacancies – Pranab Mukherjee resigned after being elected the 13th president of India and Vijay Bahuguna resigned to be co-opted as council member after he was made chief minister of Uttarakhand. A Bharatiya Janata Party member from Bellary, Karnataka, J. Shanta, facing a court case, would not be able to vote. The Rajya Sabha has 245 members.
UPA constituents like the Nationalist Congress Party, the DMK, the Rashtriya Lok Dal and the National Conference are backing Ansari but the Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is yet to clarify her stand.
Parties supporting the UPA from outside like the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Lok Janshakti Party are also backing Ansari.
The Janata Dal (Secular) has also pledged support to Ansari, who has been a career diplomat and scholar.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist, which had supported Ansari in 2007, is backing him for a second term but the Revolutionary Socialist Party will abstain from voting.
National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate Jaswant Singh is supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and allies like the Akali Dal, Janata Dal (United) and the Shiv Sena. agencies
JAYALALITHAA BACKS BJP'S CHOICE
On the eve of Vice-Presidential election, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Monday extended AIADMK's support to NDA nominee Jaswant Singh, saying she firmly believes that there has to be an opposition in a true democracy.
'If we are to have a true democracy, there has to be an opposition in the country. Simply because the candidate put up by the ruling dispensation appears to have a winning chance, it does not mean that no one else should contest this election,' Jayalalithaa told reporters after meeting Singh, who flew in here to seek AIADMK's support in the election.
The AIADMK chief said her party's backing to Singh was mainly to 'reinforce my strong belief, principle and conviction (that) in a democracy, there has to be an opposition.'
'And that is why we are making our opposition known and felt and that is why the AIADMK has decided to support the candidature of Jaswant Singh,' she said. Jayalalithaa recalled her 28-year-old association with the senior BJP leader in the Rajya Sabha since 1984, when she was a member of the Upper House and described him as one of the 'finest' and 'gentleman' politician in Indian politics. 'So, it is a mark of my personal esteem and regard for Jaswant Singh, that the AIADMK has decided to support his candidature for Vice President,' she said.
Singh, who was accompanied by his election agent Rajiv Pratap Rudy, said he was 'indebted' to the AIADMK leader for her support to him.
The sources claimed the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) nominee has the support of 500 out of the total 787 members in both houses of parliament, who constitute the electoral college for the vice presidential election.
The Lok Sabha has a total strength of 545 members, including speaker. It has two vacancies – Pranab Mukherjee resigned after being elected the 13th president of India and Vijay Bahuguna resigned to be co-opted as council member after he was made chief minister of Uttarakhand. A Bharatiya Janata Party member from Bellary, Karnataka, J. Shanta, facing a court case, would not be able to vote. The Rajya Sabha has 245 members.
UPA constituents like the Nationalist Congress Party, the DMK, the Rashtriya Lok Dal and the National Conference are backing Ansari but the Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is yet to clarify her stand.
Parties supporting the UPA from outside like the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Lok Janshakti Party are also backing Ansari.
The Janata Dal (Secular) has also pledged support to Ansari, who has been a career diplomat and scholar.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist, which had supported Ansari in 2007, is backing him for a second term but the Revolutionary Socialist Party will abstain from voting.
National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate Jaswant Singh is supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and allies like the Akali Dal, Janata Dal (United) and the Shiv Sena. agencies
JAYALALITHAA BACKS BJP'S CHOICE
On the eve of Vice-Presidential election, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Monday extended AIADMK's support to NDA nominee Jaswant Singh, saying she firmly believes that there has to be an opposition in a true democracy.
'If we are to have a true democracy, there has to be an opposition in the country. Simply because the candidate put up by the ruling dispensation appears to have a winning chance, it does not mean that no one else should contest this election,' Jayalalithaa told reporters after meeting Singh, who flew in here to seek AIADMK's support in the election.
The AIADMK chief said her party's backing to Singh was mainly to 'reinforce my strong belief, principle and conviction (that) in a democracy, there has to be an opposition.'
'And that is why we are making our opposition known and felt and that is why the AIADMK has decided to support the candidature of Jaswant Singh,' she said. Jayalalithaa recalled her 28-year-old association with the senior BJP leader in the Rajya Sabha since 1984, when she was a member of the Upper House and described him as one of the 'finest' and 'gentleman' politician in Indian politics. 'So, it is a mark of my personal esteem and regard for Jaswant Singh, that the AIADMK has decided to support his candidature for Vice President,' she said.
Singh, who was accompanied by his election agent Rajiv Pratap Rudy, said he was 'indebted' to the AIADMK leader for her support to him.
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