By IANS,
New Delhi : National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate for the vice presidential poll Jaswant Singh Friday filed his nomination papers in the presence of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani and alliance convenor Sharad Yadav.
The 74-year-old BJP veteran filed his papers before Returning Officer T.K. Viswanathan, Lok Sabha secretary general, on the last day for nomination Friday. The election is slated for Aug 7.
He filed three sets of papers, one each with support from Advani, Sumitra Mahajan and Yashwant Sinha.
Party leaders Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj were also present on the occasion. From the allies, Shiv Sena’s Ananth Geete and Shiromani Akali Dal’s (SAD) Rattan Singh Ajnala, Harsimrat Kaur and Naresh Gujral were present.
A former army officer, Jaswant Singh served as finance minister in the short-lived government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, which lasted just from May 16 to June 1, 1996. He then served as finance minister, defence minister and external affairs minister in NDA governments between 1998 and 2004.
He was chosen as the opposition alliance’s unanimous candidate for the vice president on Monday.
He is pitted against ruling United Progressive Alliance’s Hamid Ansari who is likely to be re-elected for the second term. He has the support of 438 votes in the 790-member electoral college, more than the 50 percent needed to win.