Jaswant Singh is NDA’s vice presidential candidate

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Monday named senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh as its candidate for the vice presidential poll, setting up a contest with ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) candidate and incumbent Hamid Ansari.

The name of Jaswant Singh, who has served as the finance, external affairs and defence minister, was announced by senior BJP leader L.K. Advani at a press conference here.

"We have unanimously decided that Jaswant Singh will be our vice presidential candidate," Advani said, soon after the NDA meeting to finalise the name of its nominee ended at his residence here.

The vice presidential election will be held Aug 7.

Advani noted that the NDA had also considered the name of Sharad Yadav, but the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader refused to accept the nomination.

The BJP leader said the NDA had decided to contest against a second term for Ansari, as "we do not want to give a walk-over" to the UPA.