Gopalkrishna Gandhi is opposition’s pick for vice president

New Delhi, July 11 : Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi will be the opposition candidate for the August 5 Vice Presidential election.
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi announced his name after a gathering consisting of 18 opposition parties unanimously endorsed Gandhi’s name for the post. TMC leader Derek O’Brien proposed the name of Gandhi and CPM leader Sitaram Yechury seconded it. Gandhi consented to be the nominee after Ghulam Nabi Azad, O’Brien and Yechury spoke to him from the meeting of opposition leaders at Parliament House on Tuesday. “Gopal Gandhi was unanimously chosen to be opposition candidate for the VP poll. There was no discussion on any other name,” O’Brien said after the meeting which also observed a two-minute silence in memory of the Amarnath pilgrims killed by terrorists. Gandhi’s name took just 15 minutes to finalise and for the rest of the meeting the opposition leaders discussed the ongoing political situation in India vowing to corner the government inside and outside Parliament.