January 22, 2026

NDA Candidates Likely To Sail Through

By Linus Garg
First publised on 2022-07-18 07:08:18

About the Author

Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.

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That the opposition parties are not on the same page was clear when Yashwant Sinha was selected as the joint opposition candidate as many parties, including AAP, BJD, YSRCP did not attend the meeting then. Now, when the opposition parties met at NCP leader Sharad Pawar's house in Delhi on Sunday to decide on the joint candidate for the vice-presidential elections, Trinamool Congress (TMC) also broke rank and did not attend the meeting. The opposition parties that attended the meeting decided upon Congress leader and former Central minister and former governor Margaret Alva as their joint candidate. Later, TMC said that it does not endorse Alva's candidature.

While in naming the candidate for the presidential elections the opposition had taken the lead allowing the BJP to counter it with a strategic and strong candidate in Droupadi Murmu, this time they waited for the NDA to announce its candidate first. After the NDA announced the name of West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar as its candidate, the opposition has come up with Margaret Alva's name. But it is clear that as in case of the presidential candidate, the joint opposition candidate for the vice-president's post is also not going to receive support from all opposition parties. Already, the BJD has announced that it is going to support Dhankhar. AIADMK has also indicated its support for him. The JMM, on the other hand, after breaking rank with other opposition parties to support Droupadi Murmu as she was a tribal, has said that it will support Alva. YSRCP has not made its position known till now but is likely to support the NDA candidate.

The NDA candidates are likely to sail through easily in both the elections as the opposition is not united and the NDA is short by just a few percentage points which parties like BJD and YSRCP will make up for it.