New Delhi, July 22 (PTI): The NDA today decided to back former Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson Najma Heptullah for the post of Vice-President.The decision was taken after a meeting of NDA leaders here.
The UPA-Left combine had earlier nominated Chairman of the National Commission for Minorities Hamid Ansari as their candidate for the post of Vice-President.
Heptullah, a former Congress leader switched loyalty to the BJP in 2004.The BJP-led NDA, it may be recalled, wants to neutralise the women's empowerment campaign of the Congress, which had named former Rajasthan Governor Pratibha Patil, as the ruling alliance's nominee for the presidency.
Rajya Sabha member Najma Heptullah, who was its Deputy Chairperson for a long period, has a Congress tag for her association with the party for over three decades before she left it to join the BJP in 2004.
A grand-niece of freedom fighter Maulana Abul Kalam Azad,Heptullah held several positions in the Congress and has been a member of the upper house since 1980.
She had a steady rise in the Congress and was the deputy chairperson of the Rajya Sabha from January 1985 to January 1986 and from 1988 to July 2004.
During the NDA rule, she was named as head of the Indian Council of Cultural Affairs and led many Indian delegations abroad.
Her closeness with the NDA, however, hit her ties with the Congress and jeopardised her chances of renomination to the Rajya Sabha.
In June, 2004, she, therefore, quit the Congress a day after the BJP decided to field her as its candidate for the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan.
Heptullah was President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union from 1999 to 2002.
She lost her post as Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha and was eventually out of the Indian Council of Cultural Affairs when the Congress-led UPA came to power.
Heptullah's academic record shows her association as advisor with the Harvard university's centre for middle eastern studies from 1992 to 96.
She has also been member of the AMU's university courts and Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Born in Bhopal on April 13, 1940, Heptullah is a doctorate in cardiac anatomy