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Sushil Kumar Shinde, the opposition candidate for the vice-presidency, can only offer a symbolic fight to his National Democratic Alliance rival Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.
Shekhawat's victory has become a certainty with All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief J Jayalalithaa deciding to support him.
While the Left parties have traditionally opposed any candidate projected by the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Congress declared that it would be forced to put up a candidate if the BJP did not work for a consensus.
Earlier, in the run-up to the presidential election, the Congress had hemmed and hawed on the issue of supporting NDA candidate A P J Abdul Kalam, delaying a decision till the People's Front comprising the Left parties and the Samajwadi Party disintegrated, then deciding to back him.
"The Congress leadership knows that our candidate is winning anyway," a BJP MP from Maharashtra said. "Bhairon Singh Shekhawat's victory, given our numerical superiority in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha combined (the two Houses of Parliament constitute the electoral college for the vice-presidential poll) is certain. So its leadership feels it will be better off being seen to be opposing our candidate."
The MP did not think the opposition's gambit of fielding a candidate from the scheduled castes would affect Shekhawat's prospects. "We are confident that our SC/ST MPs will fully back Shekhawatji," he asserted.
Shekhawat, a BJP veteran and three times chief minister of Rajasthan, has many friends in the opposition ranks. But the opposition's move to pit a joint candidate against him reflects its continuing attempt to put the ruling coalition on the mat.
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