Najma, Ansari file papers for Vice-Presidential polls

New Delhi, July 23 (UNI) UPA-Left candidate Hamid Ansari and NDA nominee Najma Heptullah filed their nomination papers for the August ten Vice-Presidential polls today, making it a triangular contest with UNPA's Rashid Masood being the third contestant in the fray.

Mr Ansari's papers were proposed by a host of leaders including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Information and Broadcasting Minister P R Dasmunsi, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Minority Affairs Minister A R Antulay, Union Chemical and Fertilisers Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, CPI(M) leaders Mohammed Salim and Sitaram Yechury and DMK leader and Transport Minister T R Balu.

Mr Ansari filed three sets of papers. He filed his papers at 1103 hrs before Returning Officer Dr Yogendra Narain.

Sixtyseven-year-old Dr Heptullah filed one set of nomination papers, signed by 60 MPs including former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L K Advani and NDA convener George Fernandes, at 1230 hrs.

She also filed another set of papers at 1400 hrs which was signed by 28 MPs as proposers and 26 as seconders.

When Dr Ansari was asked how he would run the Rajya Sabha when he did not have any experience in the matter, he replied all organisations have some set norms, rules and guidelines.

So far as the House of Elders is concerned, it has very high standards of guidelines. ''I don't think that there will be any problem in running the affairs of the House,'' he said.

Emerging after filing the nominations, a smiling Dr Heptullah said, ''It is an election and I will fight in that very spirit.'' She said the electorate comprises about 800 voters and she would seek the support of all.

Dr Heptullah added she would personally write to them and also contact the UNPA candidate for his support.

''As a candidate I think I am the best, with an experience of 27 years of running the Rajya Sabha and 17 years' experience of chairing various international organisations, including the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).'' Asked why the NDA had put up a candidate for Vice Presidential poll, despite knowing that the numbers were not in its favour, Mr Vajpayee asserted in a parliamentary democracy there was more than numbers. ''Hum bhi apna astitva dikhana chahte hain, (We also want to demonstrate our existence).'' Dr Heptullah has been a member of the Rajya Sabha for almost three decades and Deputy Chairperson of the house for most of that period. She left the Congress just after the 2004 general elections and joined the BJP, which nominated her to the Upper House from Rajasthan in July that year.

A former IFS officer, Mohammad Hamid Ansari, who was awarded the Padma Shri in 1984, has had a distinguished career as a diplomat and expert on West Asia and the Gulf region. If elected, Mr Ansari, 70, will be the second diplomat to serve as Vice-President after Mr K R Narayanan.

The UNPA candidate had filed his papers on July 20. The nomination of SP member Masood, a one-time confidante of RLD chief Ajit Singh, was proposed and seconded by 40 MPs of the seven-party UNPA.

Though the numbers seem to be in Mr Ansari's favour, the 13th Vice Presidential polls will witness a keen fight among the three Muslim candidates as the race for the country's second highest constitutional office gains momentum. The just-concluded Presidential polls had been a bitterly-contested affair with mudslinging and slander vitiating the electoral process.

UNI