Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) declared the candidacy of the 80-year-old leader after a meeting of opposition leaders at Sharad Pawar’s residence. Elections ex union minister
Source: margaret alva – Bing images
New Delhi: 17 Opposition leaders met at NCP Chief’s residence to decide the candidacy for the vice-presidential election. After narrowing it down, Margaret Alva, renowned as former minister and four time governor, was picked to stand against Jagdeep Dhankar who is the NDA’s flagbearer.
The term of Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu, the current Vice-President of India will come to an end on the 10th of August, 2022. Therefore, as per the Article 68 of Part V of the Constitution, the election must be held before the expiration of the term of office. In reference to this, the vice-president’s election will be held on the 6th day of August.
Who Is Margaret Alva?
Margaret Alva has been the Member of Parliament for around 30 years and also served as the Governor of Rajasthan. She was born on 14th April, 1942 in Mangalore, Karnataka. She is an eminent lawyer, philanthropist and trade unionist besides her political career. She served as the member of the Rajya Sabha for a consecutive term of six-years, in 1974.
Under the Rajiv Gandhi tenure she was appointed as the Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs. She has also held under leadership the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Youth Affairs and Sports, and Women and Child Development. During her stint as the Minister of State for Personnel, Pension, Public Grievances and Administrative Reforms, he was attached to the office of the Prime Minister.
It was here that she began taking administration to grass-root level. She also held the role of coordinator in the Congress President’s office and general secretary of the Congress. In 1999, she was elected to the lower house, where she held her sway over others. She was also the national convener for the women’s wing.
As the Governor, she served Uttarakhand in 2009; Rajasthan in 2012; Goa and Gujarat in 2014. She has also been a part of some major committees in the Parliament involving decisions on the Dowry Prohibition Act (Amendment) Committee, the Marriage Laws (Amendment) Committee, the Equal Remuneration Review Committee and the 84th Constitution Amendment bill Joint Select Committee for 33 per cent reservation for women in local bodies.
Between 1999-2004 she was appointed as the chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Empowerment of Women. She was also part of the Unicef-sponsored Conference on children in South Asia which highlighted the plight of the girl-child and led to the Saarc Heads of Government declaring 1987 as “The Year of Girl-Child”.
In 1989, Margaret Alva was invited by the UN Women’s Division to chair the Group of Experts meeting to assess the impact of the ‘Decade for Women’ in decision making and again in 1989 on violence against women.
Margaret also runs an NGO for Women’s rights. She has time and again shunned women’s plight and fought for her rights.The NGO claims to be involved in training women elected to local bodies, organising self-help groups for economic empowerment and providing free legal aid and counselling centres for women in distress.
The Announcement and The Aftermath:
“We have unanimously decided to field Margaret Alva as our joint candidate for the post of Vice President,” Pawar announced after the two-hour meeting. “Our collective thinking is Alva will file for the VP nomination on Tuesday,” he added.
Later that day Margaret tweeted, “It is a privilege and an honour to be nominated as the candidate of the joint opposition for the post of Vice President of India. I accept this nomination with great humility and thank the leaders of the opposition for the faith they’ve put in me.”
The Vice-Presidential election will be held on the 6th of August, between NDA’s Jagdeep Dhankar and Oppn’s Margaret Alva. The election will be conducted as per Article 324 of the Constitution which empowers the Election Commission of India to surprise, direct, control and conduct the election to the Office of the Vice President.
As per the mandate, the election shall be held in accordance with the system of single transferable vote, through a secret ballot and the electoral college shall comprise the elected members of Rajya Sabha, the nominated members of Rajya Sabha and the elected members of Lok Sabha.
However, before this we shall welcome the 15th President of the Republic of India.
