Unfazed by the defeat in presidential elections, National Democratic Alliance leaders are meeting in Delhi on Sunday to finalise their candidate for the vice-presidential election, with indications emerging on Saturday night that former Rajya Sabha deputy chairperson Najma Heptullah could be their nominee.
The NDA, which also toyed with idea of fielding a Dalit candidate, is now understood to have zeroed in on Heptullah after the two rival formations picked on Muslim candidates.
BJP sources said Heptullah, who was earlier reluctant to jump into the fray, has now given her consent.
In the wake of NDA-backed candidate Bhairon Singh Shekhawat losing to United Progressive Alliance-Left nominee Pratibha Patil by a margin of 210 votes in Parliament, the Congress demanded the opposition alliance should not field a candidate in the August 10 election.
However, NDA leader Sushma Swaraj made it clear that they would not give the vice-presidentship on a platter to the ruling combine.
At a Friday meeting, Swatantra Bharat leader Sharad Joshi requested the NDA leadership to put him up as a candidate for the August 10 election, alliance sources said.
Names of BJP leaders Satnarayan Jatia and Thawar Chand Gehlot have also done the rounds.
The Shiromani Akali Dal, a party source said, has seen no merit in proposing deputy Lok Sabha speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal, who himself had been apparently keen to jump into the fray, as the candidate.
"This will be an unnecessary obligation from the BJP when we know he will lose," an Akali leader said.