"Opposition's candidate for the post of Vice President of India is to be Margaret Alva," said NCP chief Sharad Pawar.
Alva (80) will contest the 6 August vice presidential polls BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate said West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar.
“It is a privilege and an honour to be nominated as the candidate of the joint opposition for the post of Vice President of India. I accept this nomination with great humility and thank the leaders of the opposition for the faith they’ve put in me," Alva took to Twitter to say after the announcement.
Here are five things you need to know about her:
- Alva was born in Mangalore in 1942 and grew up in different parts of the former Madras Presidency. Her father belonged to the Indian Civil Service.
- Like Dhankhar, she started her professional career as a lawyer.
- She married Niranjan Alva in 1964. She was drawn into the political scene while staying with her in-laws, both parliamentarians.
- Alva was made Central Minister at the age of 42. She was elected to the Rajya Sabha four times and one term to the Lok Sabha, in 1999 when she won the elections from the Uttara Kannada seat.
- She has served as the 17th Governor of Goa, the 23rd Governor of Gujarat, the 20th Governor of Rajasthan, and the fourth Governor of Uttarakhand.
The decision to field Alva was taken at a meeting of opposition leaders of 17 parties at the residence of Pawar.
He said a total of 17 parties have unanimously taken the decision to field her and with the support of Trinamool Congress and Aam Aadmi Party, she will be the joint candidate of a total of 19 parties.
"We are trying to contact Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal. Last time they supported our joint presidential candidate," he said, adding that even JMM is together with opposition parties in this election.
Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut said, "We are all together in this election".
