New Delhi, Aug 23 (IANS) INDIA Bloc’s vice presidential candidate Justice (Retd) B. Sudershan Reddy plans to launch his nationwide campaign to seek MPs’ support from Lucknow, said his aide on Saturday.

“Justice Reddy’s Lucknow tour is being drafted,” said a member of his personal staff, adding that he would be visiting other states later.

The visits to different states will be planned in a way that he manages to establish contact with a maximum number of MPs, he said.

Earlier, Justice Reddy said his foremost priority would be to protect and defend the Constitution and for this, rather than appealing to political parties, he is reaching out to individual MPs to take an appropriate and conscious decision.

“Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu know me well, and I know them too. They haven’t explicitly stated that they’ll support the NDA candidate. They’ve only said that they are part of the NDA and have to go with them. Let’s see what happens,” he said.

Refusing to call the September 9 VP election symbolic due to the Opposition’s numerical inferiority, he said, “I don’t think there’s anything symbolic about this contest. That’s a misunderstanding. In Parliament, while we see the numbers of parties, the actual voters are individual Members of Parliament. I appeal to each MP to consider my candidature.”

The 79-year-old Justice Reddy has a long and illustrious legal career known for his progressive and socially-conscious approach to justice, access to education and judicial independence.

During his stint in the Supreme Court from January 2007 to July 2011, while serving as the Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court and working as a Judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, Justice Reddy paid special focus on access to education.

Justice Reddy expressed strong disapproval of policies limiting access to higher education, particularly for disadvantaged groups.

Justice Reddy, who was appointed as a permanent Judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on May 2, 1995 and elevated as Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court on December 5, 2005, has also stood for judicial independence.

He was born on July 8, 1946, in Andhra Pradesh’s Rangareddy district. After completing his B.A., LL.B., he was enrolled as an Advocate at Hyderabad with the Bar Council of Andhra Pradesh on December 27, 1971 and practiced in Writ and Civil matters in the High Court of Andhra Pradesh.

He also worked as Government Pleader in the High Court during 1988-90 and served as Additional Standing Counsel for the Central government for a period of six months during 1990.

–IANS

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