Recalling his long association with the party, an emotional Naidu further said: "I wanted to see Modiji come back to power in 2019. I wanted to resign from active politics after that only. But destiny had other plans for me."
Though NDA candidate M Venkaiah Naidu is as good as the Vice-President already, the Opposition on Tuesday left no stone unturned to show complete support for its candidate, Gopal Krishna Gandhi, on the nomination day.
While filing his nomination papers at Rajya Sabha Secretary General's Office, Gandhi was accompanied by many Congress heavyweights such Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Anand Sharma, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge, besides other leaders such Derek O'Brien, Sitaram Yechury, Satish Mishra, Sharad Yadav, Praful Patel, Farooq Abdullah, Kanimozhi, and D Raja.
Naidu, however, was accompanied by none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah and other stalwarts, such as LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Ananth Kumar, among others NDA leaders.
PM Modi said: "Having years of Parliamentary experience will help him discharge the important role of the Rajya Sabha Chairperson."
After filing his nomination papers, Naidu said: "I will uphold the dignity of the office of Vice-President of India, if elected. I am no longer a member of the BJP or any other political party. I will work towards strengthening the Parliamentary democracy."
Recalling his long association with the party, an emotional Naidu further said: "I wanted to see Modiji come back to power in 2019. I wanted to resign from active politics after that only. But destiny had other plans for me."
The two ministries that Naidu had been handling have been given to Smriti Irani and Narendra Tomar. Irani will be handling the additional charge of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and Tomar has been made the Minister for Urban Development. Tomar currently holds the charge of the Ministry of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, while Irani is the incumbent Minister for Textiles. In a Cabinet reshuffle in 2016, both ministers had lost their original portfolios.
Naidu also met Advani at his residence and then called on Joshi before the two veterans joined him for the nomination. He then drove to ailing former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee's residence to seek his blessings, Naidu tweeted.
He further said Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav has also extended his support to him. He then went on to meet leaders of various parties, including non-NDA outfits such as the AIADMK, YSRCP and TRS, which have announced their support to him, the former minister said in a series of tweets.Meanwhile, after filing his nomination, a modest Gandhi said he did not belong to any party as he was an ordinary citizen, "selected by the Opposition to represent the common people".
"A gap has been created between the people and the Indian politics. I just want to fill this gap. I am not here to oppose any individual or party. I am here, in all humility, to place before electors, the aspirations of the citizens of India," Gandhi said.
On the Shiv Sena opposing his candidature for his stand against hanging of 1993 Mumbai blasts accused Yakub Memon, Gandhi said he believed that death penalty was wrong and his inspiration came from Mahatma Gandhi and Babasaheb Ambedkar, who wanted to do away with death penalty.
" I do not want to dwell on this matter beyond saying one more thing and that should be sufficient. Mahatma Gandhi opposed death penalty," he added.
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