Diplomat Mohammad Hamid Ansari and BJP leader Najma Heptullah filed nominations for the August 10 vice presidential election, paving the way for a triangular contest.
NEW DELHI: Diplomat Mohammad Hamid Ansari and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Najma Heptullah on Monday filed nominations for the August 10 vice presidential election, paving the way for a triangular contest.
Ansari, accompanied by a battery of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) leaders including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, filed his papers before Rajya Sabha Secretary General Yogendra Narain, who is the returning officer for the election.
"It is a great occasion," Ansari, supremely confident of emerging the winner, said in Parliament House.
Ansari, presently chairman of the National Commission for Minorities, is the joint candidate of the UPA and its Left allies.
Also with him at the parliament house were cabinet ministers Sharad Pawar, Lalu Prasad, Ramvilas Paswan and TR Baalu, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury and Communist Party of India general secretary AB Bardhan.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which together with UPA and the Left propped up Pratibha Patil for the presidential election that she won, is expected to extend support to Ansari.
Although a career diplomat and a noted academician, Ansari has no parliamentary experience. The vice president also presides over the Rajya Sabha.
Ansari said he was confident of doing that delicate job.
"Any organisation is run on the basis of rules and regulations. The Rajya Sabha has excellent rules and regulations," he said, when asked about how he would run the upper house without any experience in parliament.
Almost an hour later, Heputallah, who arrived at the parliament house accompanied by BJP leaders LK Advani and Sushma Swaraj and National Democratic Alliance (NDA) convenor George Fernandes, filed her nomination papers.
Besides Ansari and Heptullah, who is the NDA candidate, the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) has fielded Rashid Masood.
Monday was the last day for filing the nomination for the vice presidential election. The scrutiny of the papers will take place on Tuesday.
The MPs from both houses of parliament will elect the vice president, who is the second most important dignitary in the order of protocol in the country.
The combined strength of the two houses is 789 MPs. While the Lok Sabha has 542 elected and two nominated members, there are 236 elected and nine nominated members in the Rajya Sabha. Presently, the UPA and Left enjoy a majority in the two houses of parliament.
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