TRS to support Oppn candidate Margaret Alva for Vice-President poll

Hyderabad/New Delhi: As per the instructions of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi on Friday decided to extend its support to the opposition candidate for Vice-President polls Margaret Alva. The TRS party has issued letter to all its MPs to vote for Margaret Alva.

It is to mention here that earlier, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has decided to support Margaret Alva in the August 6 vice-presidential election.

The party's political affairs committee "unanimously" decided to support Alva after a meeting chaired by its national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, AAP's spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said on Tuesday.

"All the Rajya Sabha members of the party will vote for the opposition candidate Margaret Alva on August 6," Singh told reporters after the meeting.

It is to mention here that the NDA has fielded former governor Jagdeep Dhankar for the vice presidential election.

As per the electoral college arithmetic, Dhankhar has two-thirds of votes in his favour as the BJP by itself has 303 members in the Lok Sabha and 91 in the Rajya Sabha.

With the support of some regional parties like the Janta Dal (United), YSRCP, BSP, AIADMK and Shiv Sena, the NDA nominee is likely to get over 515 votes, enough for a comfortable win for him.

Alva is likely to get around 190-200 votes, going by the support announced by parties for her candidature so far.

The Trinamool Congress, which has 23 MPs in Lok Sabha and 16 in Rajya Sabha, has decided to stay away from the Vice-Presidential election.

Some regional parties like the Telugu Desham Party have not yet shown their cards and may take a call soon.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) also announced its support for Opposition candidate Margaret Alva in the vice-presidential election.

In a statement, party supremo Shibu Soren asked its MPs to vote for Alva during the polls scheduled to take place on August 6.

The JMM has 3 MPs, 2 in the Rajya Sabha and 1 in the Lok Sabha. Despite being an Opposition party, the JMM had earlier supported the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance candidate for President Droupadi Murmu.