Announcing Naidu's name during a press conference after the BJP Parliamentary Board meeting, party President Amit Shah said the decision has been taken unanimously by all those who were present.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has declared Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu as National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) candidate for the post of Vice-President. After the announcement, Naidu resigned from the post of the Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and the Minister of Information and Broadcasting.
Naidu will contest the vice-presidential poll against United Progressive Alliance (UPA) candidate, former West Bengal Governor and diplomat Gopal Krishna Gandhi, who is the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and also an accomplished writer.
Announcing Naidu's name during a press conference after the BJP Parliamentary Board meeting, party President Amit Shah said the decision has been taken unanimously by all those who were present.
The meeting, held at the BJP headquarters, was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Before the announcement, speculations were rife that the BJP would pick its candidate from south India. The names doing the rounds included Maharashtra Governor Vidyasagar Rao, Tamil Nadu MP L Ganesan and Kerala's O Rajagopal. By Sunday evening, Shah called Naidu to tell him he was the unanimous choice.
"Naidu's name has unanimous support from all alliance partners as well," Shah said. He will file his nomination papers at 11 am on Wednesday, the last day to file nominations. The minister is considered No. 5 in the Union Cabinet, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Affairs Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
The vice-presidential election is scheduled to be held on August 5. Hamid Ansari, whose term as the Vice-President ends on August 10, was the Vice-President and ex-officio Chairman of Rajya Sabha from August 11, 2007, to August 10, 2012. He was re-elected to the post on August 11, 2012.
To take final call on the matter, PM Modi had met senior Cabinet ministers last week, while Shah had held consultations with top ideologues of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) on Thursday. Shah met Dr Krishna Gopal Sharma and Suresh Joshi at the RSS headquarters in Keshav Kunj.
WHY NAIDU?
Known for his extemporary one-liners, which can make light of even the grimmest of situations, and his timely aggressive posturing, Naidu has strongly defended PM Modi-led government and governance, both inside the Parliament and on public forums.
Also, NDA has already nominated north Indian Ram Nath Kovind as the Presidential candidate. The nomination of Naidu, who hails from the Nellore district in Andhra Pradesh, will help balance out the regional factor. Kovind comes from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh.
Naidu's nomination signals that BJP is aiming to make inroads in south India, especially in the Andhra region, ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Four-time Rajya Sabha MP, Naidu is among the few experienced and amiable candidates who can command respect in the Upper House, which is studded with veteran politicians.
ALL SET FOR A WIN?
The vice-presidential election is heavily stacked in favour of the ruling NDA. It has around 550 votes out of a total of 790 members in both Houses of the Parliament, which form the Electoral College for the election.
The Electoral College that votes for the vice-president, who is also the ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, has 543 elected and 2 nominated members of the Lok Sabha, besides 233 currently elected members and 12 nominated members of the Rajya Sabha.
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