The Bharatiya Janata Party is in all likelihood set to pick Maha rashtra governor C Vidyasagar Rao as the vice-presidential candidate of the National Democratic Alliance.
While the coalition will not release the name today for tactical reasons, We learnt from politicians clued up on the selection that it is going to read C Vidyasagar Rao, the governor of Maharashtra.
Sources from the party said the choice dovetails with the BJP's ambition to entrench itself in the South, what with BJP president Amit Shah aiming to capture power in Telangana.
Rao, who belongs to the upper-caste Vellama community, hails from the country's 29th state, carved three years ago after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.
His name had been doing the rounds among southern parties, but was sealed after Shah met with Sangh leaders Bhaiyyaa Joshi and Krisnadas Gopal in New Delhi earlier in the week to decide the candidate.
"The BJP has not communicated any name. But what we hear is that it is going to be Vidyasagar Rao," Telangana Rashtra Samithi MP Jithender Reddy told media, before adding: "It is not official yet."
The governor belongs to the same community as Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
Sources from the Telugu Desam Party in neighbouring Andhra also said that Vidyasagar Rao was the fron trunner, even as Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, who initially refused the job, seemed to be having second thoughts.
