Vice-Presidential poll: Jaswant Singh banking on Naveen Patnaik and Jayalalithaa

NEW DELHI: NDA’s vice-presidential candidate Jaswant Singh has exuded confidence of getting the backing of Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK and Navin Patnaik’s BJD for the August 7 election. “I do believe in that. And I bank on that... I am assured (of their support)... Yes, I am (confident),” Singh said in an interview to a television news channel when asked if the two parties would extend their support to him.

In the presidential poll, BJP had backed PA Sangma, whose name was proposed by Jayalalithaa and Patnaik. Asked why the two leaders were silent, Singh said, “I have no difficulty with silence.” Though BJP leaders and Singh himself have been trying to reach out to the two parties, there is no word from AIADMK or BJD.

However,BJP has managed to get all its allies on board, unlike in the presidential poll when JD(U) and Shiv Sena had voted for UPA’s Pranab Mukherjee. To a question if it would be embarrassing if no one other than NDA constituents backed his candidature, Singh said, “why don’t you wait until the 7th of August ... don’t jump to conclusions.”

Asked if he was apprehensive following Sangma’s charges against UPA about using allurements and threats during the presidential poll, he said, “I am not. I don’t lend myself to such apprehensions . I am adult enough to know the reality of India’s political life... But it is much better for me not to totter my thinking with that kind of detail.” BJP, which is hoping “anti-Congressism” will help it rope in more allies, was also trying to reach out to parties like Trinamool Congress.

Though the numbers are tilted heavily in favour of UPA candidate Hamid Ansari, who has the backing of parties like SP, BSP and the Left, besides the ruling alliance, BJP is aiming at a strategy that would send the message that it has friends outside NDA too. During the presidential poll, BJP voted along with AIADMK and BJD, but had failed to keep the NDA together.