Margaret Alva is Oppn pick for Veep

New Delhi: Opposition parties have picked former Union minister and veteran Congress leader Margaret Alva as their joint candidate for the vice-presidential election. The decision was announced by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar after an all-party meet by the Opposition parties in New Delhi. "17 parties are on board for this unanimous decision.

Our collective thinking is Alva will file VP nomination on Tuesday," Pawar said.

"We are trying to contact Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal. Last time they supported our joint president candidate," he said. "We are all together in this election," Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said.

Taking to her official Twitter handle, Margaret Alva thanked the leaders of the Opposition for nominating her as the candidate of the joint Opposition for the post of vice-president.

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, NCP's Supriya Sule, Samajwadi Party's (SP) Ramgopal Yadav, Communist Party of India (Marxist)'s Sitaram Yechury, Rashtriya Janata Dal's (RJD) AD Singh, senior Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Jairam Ramesh and others attended the meet.