Margaret Alva is Opposition’s vice presidential pick

New Delhi, July 17: Opposition leaders have decides to field Margret Alva as their joint vice president candidate. NCP chief Sharad Pawar said Alva is unanimous choice of opposition parties.

"We are trying to contact Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal. Last time they supported our joint president candidate," Sharad Pawar told PTI.

Among the attendees were Congress' Mallikarjun Kharge and Jairam Ramesh, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury, CPI's D Raja and Binoy Viswam, Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut, DMK's T R Baalu and Tiruchi Siva, SP's Ram Gopal Yadav, MDMK's Vaiko and TRS' K Keshava Rao. The RJD's A D Singh, IMUL's E T Mohammed Basheer and Kerala Congress (M)'s Jose K. Mani were also present.

Unlike the presidential election when the opposition camp had announced their nominee Yashwant Sinha ahead of NDA's Droupadi Murmu, leading to several non BJP parties including even Congress allies Shiv Sena and the JMM veering towards Murmu, this time the like-minded parties wanted to wait for the announcement of the NDA candidate.

West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar has been fielded as the NDA's vice presidential candidate.

The tenure of incumbent M Venkaiah Naidu ends on August 10.

The election has already been notified by the Election Commission and the last date for filing of nominations is July 19.

The election for the post of vice president will be held on August 6.