Gopalkrishna Gandhi filed his nomination for Vice President with senior Congress leaders by his side.
today filed his nomination for vice president in the presence of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and senior leader Manmohan Singh and several opposition leaders, including from the JD(U). This was hours NDA show of strength after their
candidate M Venkaiah Naidu filed his papers with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and veteran leader LK Advani present by his side.
Mr Gandhi has been picked by 18 opposition parties to be their nominee for the post of vice president. His name was proposed by former PM Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechuri, who was also present by his side in show of support.
The Congress was represented by senior leaders such as Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mallikarjun Kharge as the former West Bengal governor filed his papers in the parliament complex.
Also present were other opposition leaders, including JD (U)'s Sharad Yadav, CPI's D Raja, NCP's Tariq Anwar and Praful Patel, NC's Farooq Abdullah and DMK's Kanimozhi.
Mr Gandhi, who is known for his straight-talk, is the grandson of two legends of India's freedom movement, Mahatma Gandhi and C Rajagopalachari. He is the son of Mahatma Gandhi's son Devdas Gandhi and Mr Rajagopalachari's daughter Lakshmi.
Earlier today, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Biju Janata Dal chief had announced his party's support to Mr Gandhi, for the post of vice-president. The regional party had supported NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind in the
presidential election, polling for which was held yesterday.
The vice presidential election is scheduled to be held on August 5.
(with inputs from PTI and IANS)