Bhubaneswar: The ruling BJD in Odisha today announced that it would abstain from voting in the vice-presidential election scheduled to be held on 7 August.

“After consultation with parliament members and senior leaders, the party has decided to abstain from voting in the vice-presidential elections,” BJD president and chief minister Naveen Patnaik told reporters here.

Maintaining its earlier stance to maintain equi-distance from both the Congress-led UPA and BJP-led NDA, Mr Patnaik said his party MPs favoured not taking part in the election process.

The regional party which was first to name P A Sangma as its candidate for the presidential poll, has 21 MPs, 14 in Lok Sabha and seven in Rajya Sabha.

Though the BJD strongly backed Mr Sangma by projecting him as a prominent tribal and minority leader, the regional outfit had delayed its decision with regard to the vice-presidential poll.