Jaswant Singh files nomination for vice presidential election

New Delhi, July 20 (ANI): National Democratic Alliance's vice presidential candidate Jaswant Singh filed his nomination papers here on Friday afternoon.

74-year-old Singh, who was unanimously selected by the NDA for contesting the post of vice president early on Monday against UPA nominee Mohammad Hamid Ansari, files his nomination papers in the presence of senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Lal Krishna Advani, Sushma Swaraj Arun Jaitley, Gopinath Munde and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) chief Sharad Yadav.

Three sets of papers, one each by L.K. Advani, Sumitra Mahajan and Yashwant Sinha, supporting Singh's candidature were submitted to Lok Sabha Secretary T.K. Vishwanathan, who is the Returning Officer for the vice presidential election.

Jaswant Singh, a Member of Parliament from the Darjeeling parliamentary constituency, served as finance minister in the short-lived Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government, which lasted just from May 16, 1996, to June 1, 1996.

After Vajpayee became the Prime Minister again two years later, he became Minister for External Affairs of India, from December 5, 1998 until July 1, 2002. Responsible for foreign policy, he dealt with high tension between India and Pakistan. In July 2002, he became Finance Minister again, switching posts with Yashwant Sinha.

He served as Finance Minister until the defeat of the Vajpayee government in May 2004 and was instrumental in defining and pushing through the market-friendly reforms of the government.

Known for his moderate political views, he is a self-described liberal democrat even though the Bharatiya Janata Party is often described as a right-wing nationalist organization. Jaswant Singh was conferred the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award for the year 2001.

On August 19, 2009, he was expelled from BJP following criticism over his remarks in his book 'Jinnah - India, Partition, Independence', which praised the founder of Pakistan. (ANI)