Congress nominee for Vice-President of India is likely to be Vyricherla Kishore Chandra Suryanarayana Deo. He is presently the Union minister for Tribal Affairs.

The UPA2 leadership is seeking the support of JDU and Shiv Sena for Kishore Chandra Deo. If back channels efforts succeed, there is an indication that the name of Kishore Chandra Deo will be announced this week.

UPA does not want to approach Trinamool or for that matter Mayawati's BSP as the total voters for Vice-President is 790 MPs.

A five time Lok Sabha MP Kishore Chandra Deo had a brief meeting with Sonia Gandhi recenlty. Insiders indicate that Deo might be the choice of both Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

According to AICC sources, on Friday, when the Core Committee of Congress will meet, a final decision is expected. Though there are two weeks still available for the political parties to take a call, the buzz in ruling party is Kishore Deo while in NDA the speculation is that Jaswant Singh might be fielded.

Kishore Chandra Deo was Union Minister of state for Steel in Choudhary Charan Singh Government in 1979.

Nomination forms for VP election will be available Monday onwards. Last date of filing nomination is on July 20 and the polling is on August 7.

The Electoral College for the present election of the Vice-President consists of the following members: a) Rajya Sabha: Elected = 233 Nominated = 12
b) Lok Sabha: Elected = 543 Nominated = 2 Total = 790