The RSS doesn’t have any preference on who should be the vice presidential candidate of the NDA. Said RSS’s media in-charge Manmohan Vaidya to THE WEEK, “There is too much of speculation in the media. We have not given any suggestions to the BJP yet. Journalists are having a field day and are themselves taking all the decisions. It seems they know better than us about the decisions we take.”
Vaidya was reacting to news reports on how the RSS was favouring an upper caste south Indian for the post of the vice president; this after the BJP nominated a north Indian dalit as its presidential candidate. The BJP is trying to extend its foothold in south and it is believed this is the reason why the RSS prefers a south Indian candidate.
On July 13, BJP president Amit Shah met senior RSS leaders Bhaiyyaji Joshi and Krishna Gopal. The hour-long discussion, said news reports, was on the eligibility of the candidate to be nominated for the vice presidential election due on August 5. “I don’t deny that that the meeting took place. But it had nothing to do with the vice presidential elections,” said Vaidya.
Scrutiny of nomination papers for the vice presidential election is due on July 19 and the last date for the withdrawal of the nomination is July 21. The opposition parties announced the name of Gopalkrishna Gandhi as its candidate. Gandhi, a former IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre, is the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. During UPA-I, he was the governor of West Bengal.
Said Sadananda Gowda, senior BJP leader and Union minister from Karnataka, to THE WEEK, “I am not aware that the vice presidential candidate of the NDA is going to be a south Indian. Our party will take a decision soon.”
The BJP is expected to hold a meeting of its parliamentary board in the next few days. The term of Vice President Hamid Ansari ends on August 10. He won the second term in August 2012.
Said the BJP’s national secretary H. Raja to THE WEEK, “Many south Indians have become the president and the vice president of our country. We will be happy if a south Indian becomes the next vice president. But it is a decision that Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have to take in consultation with the allies of the NDA.” Raja belongs to Tamil Nadu.
