Gopalkrishna Gandhi must publicly say no to JDU votes: NCP

New Delhi: NCP on Friday said Opposition vice-presidential candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi must publicly say ‘no’ to JDU votes. “My suggestion to combined Opposition vice-presidential candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi ji, who is a man of high principles and integrity, is that he must publicly state that he is declining, that he does not want the votes of JDU MPs in view of Nitsh Kumar and his party ditching Opposition and betraying secular politics to cross over to the Narendra Modi-led NDA and forming a government in Bihar along with BJP,” NCP general secretary Tariq Anwar told ET.

“It is a matter of taking a principled stand, in public, by rising above narrow calculations of votes. I hope Gopal Gandhi ji will do it,” added Anwar, a senior Lok Sabha member. Incidentally, Anwar’s suggestion, if not an indirect poser to Gandhi, coincides with Gopal Gandhi been quoted by PTI on Friday as saying, “I would like to believe there is no change in the JDU decision to support my candidature.” The news agency said Gandhi was responding to queries “on the recent political churning that saw Nitish Kumar resigning and then taking oath as Bihar chief minister with the BJP’s support”.