Gopalkrishna Gandhi is united Oppn's choice for VP

Taking the lead, a united Opposition on Tuesday chose Mahatma Gandhi's grandson Gopal Krishna Gandhi, 71, as its candidate for the Vice-President's election slated on August 5. The ruling BJP-led NDA has not yet announced its candidate. The BJP Parliamentary Board is meeting on Sunday to choose its candidate for the vice-presidential post. Eighteen parties — including Bihar CM Nitish Kumar's JD(U) that snubbed the Opposition's unity on the choice of the presidential candidate — unanimously selected Gopal Krishna Gandhi in a meeting convened in the Parliament House by the Congress.

The Vice-President is elected indirectly, by an electoral college consisting of members of both Houses of the Parliament. The election is slightly different from the election of the President as the members of state legislatures are not part of the electoral college for the vice-presidential election. The NDA has a clear majority in this electoral college, unlike in the presidential elections, where it gained a razor-thin edge riding on the shoulders of regional groupings. Out of 790 MPs in both Houses, the NDA has 550 votes.

Gandhi is a former Governor of West Bengal and a retired bureaucrat and diplomat, besides being an aide of two former Presidents — R Venkataraman and KR Narayanan. He was a Tamil Nadu cadre IAS officer of 1968, retired in 2003, and held several diplomatic postings, including as India's High Commissioner in the UK, South Africa and Sri Lanka.