As part of their campaign for the Presidential and Vice Presidential elections, the Opposition’s candidates Meira Kumar and Gopalkrishna Gandhi will hold an interactive session with MPs of 18 non-National Democratic Alliance (NDA) parties on Sunday.
The first such joint outreach to be attended by all Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha MPs of non-NDA political parties is being organised in the Parliament annexe tomorrow evening.
The interactive session, sources say, will see Ms. Kumar, the Opposition’s Presidential nominee, and Mr. Gandhi, its Vice Presidential candidate, make their presentations before them. They will also answer any queries by MPs and engage with them in the closed-door interactive session, not open to the media.
While the election for the post of President will be held on July 17, that of the Vice President, who is the chairman of the Rajya Sabha, will be held on August 5.
Though the numbers are stacked in favour of the ruling dispensation, the Opposition has made it a battle of ideologies. Mr. Kumar has appealed to the MPs and MLAs for a vote of “conscience” and “inner voice” in her favour. The Opposition feels Mr. Gandhi is an ideal candidate as he is the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and C. Rajagopalachari, the last Governor General of India.
As many as 17 non-NDA parties, including the Congress and Left parties,, are supporting Ms. Kumar, while the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) is supporting the NDA’s nominee, Ram Nath Kovind.
