Ahead of the vice-presidential elections on August 5, Opposition parties led by UPA picked Gopalkrishna Devdas Gandhi as their candidate. The 18 Opposition parties met on Tuesday to decide on their nominee for the vice-presidential poll. Gopalakrishna Gandhi is Professor of Political Science, History, and Indian Civilizations at Ashoka University.

Gandhi is a retired IAS officer and diplomat, who served as the Governor of West Bengal during the UPA reign from 2004 to 2009. Gandhi has a political legacy as his paternal grandfather was Mahatma Gandhi and maternal grandfather was C. Rajagopalachari. The 71year-old served as Secretary to Vice-President of India and Joint Secretary to President of India during service.

JDU represented by Sharad Yadav also participated in the discussion despite their Opposition over the presidential pick Meira Kumar. Gandhi’s name was the only one to come up during the meeting as was in the case of Presidential candidate. The NDA led by the BJP will be naming its candidate by July 13.