The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will support joint Opposition candidate Margaret Alva in the August 6 vice-presidential election.
The party's political affairs committee "unanimously" decided to support Alva after a meeting chaired by its national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, AAP's spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said on Tuesday.
"All the Rajya Sabha members of the party will vote for the opposition candidate Margaret Alva on August 6," Mr. Singh told reporters after the meeting.
The NDA has fielded former governor Jagdeep Dhankhar as its nominee for the vice presidential election.
As per the electoral college arithmetic, Mr. Dhankhar has two-thirds of votes in his favour as the BJP by itself has 303 members in the Lok Sabha and 91 in the Rajya Sabha.
With the support of some regional parties like the Janta Dal (United), YSRCP, BSP, AIADMK and Shiv Sena, the NDA nominee is likely to get over 515 votes, enough for a comfortable win for him.
Ms. Alva is likely to get around 190-200 votes, going by the support announced by parties for her candidature so far.
The Trinamool Congress, which has 23 MPs in Lok Sabha and 16 in Rajya Sabha, has decided to stay away from the vice presidential election.
Some regional parties like the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and the Telugu Desham Party have not yet shown their cards and may take a call soon.
JMM declares support for Margaret Alva
Earlier on Wednesday, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) also announced its support for Opposition candidate Margaret Alva in the vice-presidential election.
In a statement, party supremo Shibu Soren asked its parliamentarians to vote in favour of former Union minister Alva during the elections scheduled to take place on August 6.
The JMM has 3 MPs — 2 in the Rajya Sabha and 1 in the Lok Sabha. Despite being an Opposition party, the JMM had earlier supported the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance candidate Droupadi Murmu in the July 18 presidential election.
