Venkaiah Naidu, Gopal Gandhi File Nominations For Vice-President’s Post

Both the contenders for the vice-presidential posts, NDA-backed M Venkaiah Naidu and UPA-backed Gopal Krishna Gandhi filed their nominations on Tuesday.

The 68-year-old Naidu, who quit as Information and Broadcasting and Urban Devlopment Minister after being chosen as the ruling NDA's Vice Presidential candidate on Monday night, filed his nomination before Rajya Sabha Secretary General Shumsher K. Sheriff, who is the Returning Officer for the August 5 election. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah, senior leaders L.K. Advani, Sushma Swaraj and several others, including V. Maitreyan, leader of the AIADMK faction headed by O. Panneerselvam, accompanied Naidu when he filed his nomination papers.

The Telugu Desam, Telangana Rashtra Samiti, YSR Congress and the ndian National Lok Dal are among the parties which have extended support to Naidu. He is comfortably placed against UPA candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi in the electoral college consisting of 771 members of both the Houses of Parliament, including the nominated members.

Earlier, former West Bengal governor and UPA nominee Gopalkrishna Gandhi filed his nomination. Gandhi has been chosen by 18 opposition parties.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi, vice-president Rahul Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh as well as Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mallikarjun Kharge, D (U)'s Sharad Yadav, CPM's Sitaram Yechury, CPI's D Raja, NCP's Tariq Anwar and Praful Patel, NC's Farooq Abdullah and DMK's Kanimozhiwere among those accompanied him.