Jaswant Singh to file nomination for vice-prez poll

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National Democratic Alliance's vice-presidential candidate Jaswant Singh will file his nomination papers here on Friday afternoon.

Singh, who was unanimously selected by the NDA for the vice-presidential election early on Monday against UPA nominee Mohammad Hamid Ansari, will file his nomination papers in the presence of senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Lal Krishna Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) chief Sharad Yadav.

He will file his nomination papers to Lok Sabha secretary general T.K. Vishwanathan, who is the Returning Officer for the vice presidential election.

74-year-old Singh is expected to file three sets of papers signed by leaders from the BJP as well as the NDA alliance partners.

Jaswant Singh earlier on Monday said that he was honoured to be named as the National Democratic Alliance's candidate for Vice-President of India.

Singh said that it was both an honour and a responsibility to be named as the NDA's vice-presidential candidate.

"It is a great honour for me that the NDA has by consensus nominated me as a vice presidential candidate. It is a great a big responsibility and I would try my best to fulfill my responsibilities," he said.

Advani, who announced Jaswant Singh's name, said the NDA had decided not to give a walkover to the UPA vice presidential candidate nominated for a second term in office.

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, serving from December 5, 1998 until July 1, 2002.

Responsible for foreign policy, he dealt with high tensions 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 organisation.

Jaswant Singh was conferred the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award for the year 2001.

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