Picture Courtesy : Newsmobile
A day before the vice-presidential election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address MPs of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Friday and seek support for the alliance’s candidate Venkaiah Naidu, who is pitted against opposition nominee Gopalkrishna Gandhi.
According to Times of India report, Sources said other than NDA’s 81 Rajya Sabha members and 337 Lok Sabha members, those of AIADMK, YSR Congress and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) will also be present. The three regional parties have extended support to Naidu.
Two other regional parties, JD(U) and BJD, which had supported NDA’s presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind, have, however, supported Gandhi even as JD(U) is now running an alliance government with BJP in Bihar.
Sources said the PM would not just seek support for Naidu but also apprise MPs about the voting process as several votes cast in the presidential polls were invalidated due to technical mistakes by members of the collegium. A demonstration of the voting is also likely.
A least 21 votes were declared invalid during the President’s election, prompting Modi to raise the issue during the recent meeting of the BJP parliamentary party. Some NDA leaders will also speak about their candidate. Later, the PM will host a dinner.
