Opposition coalition ‘India’ will field joint candidates for the post of Vice President and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge is contacting opposition parties to discuss possible names and to build consensus on it, sources gave this information on Sunday (10 August, 2025).

Kharge said that there is a strong feeling in the opposition coalition that the opposition parties should not back down from the match to send a strong political message regardless of the result. He said that there has been no discussion on choosing a candidate, but talks are going on between the partners of the ‘India’ coalition to discuss the names of potential candidates and Kharge is contacting the opposition parties to build consensus.

Consensus on this matter in all parties

According to Congress sources, there is a consensus among all parties that ‘India’ will field a joint candidate for the Vice Presidential election. However, a section of the opposition camp believes that ‘India’ should decide its candidate only after the announcement of its candidate from the BJP.

In recent times, unity has increased among the constituents of ‘India’, which has resolved to fight against the special intensive revision of the voter list in Bihar and the alleged election rigging. Demonstrating solidarity, top leaders of ‘India’ held a dinner meeting at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s residence on Thursday and committed to the revision of voter list in Bihar as well as fighting against the BJP-Independence Commission’s ‘Vote theft Model’.

This first meeting of face to face

This was the first meeting of face-to-face after a meeting of top leaders of the opposition faction at the residence of Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge in June 2024 soon after the Lok Sabha elections. Several leaders of 25 parties were present in the meeting, including Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, NCP- (SP) chief Sharad Pawar, National Conference Supreu Farooq Abdullah, PDP’s Mehbooba Mufti, SP’s Akhilesh Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav of RJD, Abhishek Banerjee of Trinamool Congress, Shiv Sena (Ubatha) chief Uddhav Thane, Dramuk’s Tiruchi Shiva and Tiruch Shiva and T R B Balu, Tiru, T T Baby, D Raja of CPI, Dipankar Bhattacharya of CPI (Male) and MNM chief Kamal Haasan were included.

During the meeting, Rahul Gandhi allegedly gave a presentation on the ‘Vote Theft Model’ of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) through the Election Commission. Congress General Secretary (Organization) KC Venugopal described this meeting as one of the most successful meetings. Asked whether the Vice Presidential election was also discussed, he said, ‘Vice Presidential elections were not discussed much, there are more opportunities for this.’

About 422 members in favor of NDA

Kharge will also organize a dinner for MPs of ‘Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance’ India ‘on Monday (July 11, 2025). Jagdeep Dhankhar, citing health reasons, suddenly resigned from the post of Vice President on the evening of August 4, although there is a continuous discussion about other reasons behind his resignation.

The effective number of both houses is 781 and the winning candidate for the post of Vice President will have to get 391 votes, provided all the eligible voters use their franchise. All members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha vote in the Vice Presidential elections, including nominated members. It seems that there are about 422 members in favor of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Rajya Sabha General Secretary receives three nomination papers

The Election Commission issued a notification last Thursday for the Vice Presidential election to be held on 9 September, which led to the process of election of Dhankar’s successor. Election Officer, Rajya Sabha General Secretary PC Modi received three nomination papers for the election, who were rejected due to non -order. According to the notification, the last date for filing nomination papers is 21 August and the documents will be examined on 22 August. The last date for withdrawal of nomination is 25 August.

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