YSR Congress To Support NDA Candidate For VP Poll

New Delhi, Aug 18 (PTI) The YSR Congress Party, which has 11 MPs, has decided to support NDA's vice presidential candidate C P Radhakrishnan, giving a boost to the ruling alliance.

Its Lok Sabha MP Maddila Gurumoorthy told PTI on Monday that his party will back the Maharashtra Governor's candidature in the elections, amid indications that the opposition will force a contest by naming its own candidate. Sources said Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had spoken to YSR Congress supremo and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, seeking the regional party's support for the ruling alliance's candidate.

YSR Congress has four MPs in the Lok Sabha and seven in the Rajya Sabha. While the YSR Congress is not part of either the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance or the opposition INDIA bloc, its main rival and Andhra Pradesh's governing party, the TDP, is a key BJP ally.

The NDA enjoys a comfortable majority in the electoral college, which comprises the members of both Houses of Parliament, making Radhakrishnan's election all but a certainty.