New Delhi: Gopalkrishna Gandhi, former West Bengal governor and the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, was on Tuesday unanimously chosen by all 18 non-NDA parties as their candidate for vice president. 
Earlier, Gandhi, 72, was said to be in the race for the Opposition's presidential candidate, which later went to the Congress's Dalit face, Meira Kumar.

Born on 22 April, 1945 to MK Gandhi's son Devdas Gandhi and C Rajagopalachari's daughter Lakshmi, Gopalkrishna served as an IAS officer from 1968 to 1992, when he voluntarily retired.
The parties, which had in early June come together to discuss fielding of a joint presidential candidate, met today at Parliament House Library to field a common vice presidential candidate.
After the meeting, Congress President Sonia Gandhi told reporters that all the parties unanimously decided to raise Gandhi’s name for the candidature. The Congress President said, “Eighteen parties have decided to field Gopalkrishna Gandhi as their vice presidential candidate.”
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, party vice-president Rahul Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, TMC's Derek O'Brien, CPM's Sitaram Yechury, SP's Naresh Agarwal, NC's Omar Abdullah, JD(S)' Deve Gowda, BSP's Satish Chandra Mishra and RLD's Ajit Singh were among those who attended the meeting.
The grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, and a distinguished diplomat in his own right, Gopalkrishna Gandhi time and again spoke his mind about contentious issues, especially about transparency and ethics in politics. 
The last date for filing nomination for the vice-presidential election is July 18, while scrutiny of nomination papers will take place on July 19. The last date for withdrawal of nominations is July 21. The ruling BJP is expected to finalise its nominee by July 13.
Hamid Ansari has been the Vice-President and ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha since August 11, 2007. He won the second term on August 11, 2012. His current term ends on August 10.
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