With the polling in the presidential election scheduled to be over on Thursday, the search for a United Progressive Alliance-Left candidate for the vice presidential election will now gain momentum.

Left parties have convened a meeting on Thursday for deliberating on the issue, amid clear signals that they have taken the initiative to find a successor to Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, whose term ends next month.

Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat has held deliberations with a number of leaders, including Congress president Sonia Gandhi, in the matter.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister P R Dasmunsi has expressed confidence that the UPA-Left would show the same solidarity in the selection of the vice presidential candidate as witnessed in the presidential election.

He also was sure that the nominee of the ruling alliance willromp home with overwhelming margin in the vice presidential poll, given the arithmetic in Parliament.

Karat's statement that the next vice president would be a non-political person has generated much debate in political circles, with Left leaders saying what was being proposed was that the nominee may not belong to any political party.

The names of noted historian Irfan Habib and Jamia Millia Islamia University vice chancellor Mushirul Hassan have been doing rounds.

The United National Progressive Alliance has already announced the candidature of former Union Minister Rashid Masood for the August 10 election, while Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance is toying with the idea of fielding former Rajya Sabha deputy chairperson Najma Heptullah.