Opposition's vice presidential candidate Margaret Alva on Sunday reached out to Chief Ministers of Assam and Karnataka a day after doing so with their Delhi counterpart.
While she had met Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday and sought his support for her candidature, she spoke with Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma and Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai on Sunday when she also took charge of her campaign office at 1, Pt Ravi Shankar Shukla Lane.
"Smt. @alva_margaret took charge of her campaign office at 1, Pt Ravi Shankar Shukla Lane today. She spoke to CM Assam, CM Karnataka, & CM Delhi as part of her Vice Presidential campaign," Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said on Twitter. The conversations were very cordial and friendly given her long political career and associations, he said. Responding to Ramesh's tweet, Sarma said he did speak with Alva, but told her he had no role to play in the vice president's election. "Smt. @alva_margaret spoke to me this morning. I politely told
her that I'm not a member of the electoral college. As such I have no role in the election of Vice President of India," Sarma said on Twitter tagging Ramesh's post. It was Alva’s turn to respond then: “As part of my campaign for VP, I’m reaching out to leaders from across political parties. Mr Sarma is an old friend & we’ve worked together long enough for him to know that after 30 yrs. in Parliament, I know what constitutes the electoral college. We had a nice chat though!” Alva and Kejriwal also discussed the current political atmosphere of the nation, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had said in a statement after the meeting.
The meeting between Alva and Kejriwal concluded "with both leaders expressing mutual respect and acknowledgement,” the party had said.
Kejriwal had not attended the meeting of 17 opposition parties held at NCP leader Sharad Pawar's residence last Sunday which decided on Alva's candidature. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee too gave it a miss.
Alva has been fielded by the Opposition against the ruling NDA's Jagdeep Dhankhar - the latest governor of West Bengal, who resigned from the post on July 18. The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress has announced it will abstain from the election. Alva responded sternly saying it was not the time for ego and whataboutery.