New Delhi, June 25: The Left today confirmed it has an “understanding” with the United Progressive Alliance to propose the nominee for Vice-President.

Senior CPM leader Sitaram Yechury said that during the discussions on the presidential election, when the Left supported the UPA’s candidate, there was “a general understanding” that it would propose the nominee for Vice-President. Yechury was speaking to reporters during a break in the CPM central committee meeting here.

The Left would suggest a name and then try to build consensus on it among other parties, he said.

Earlier, Left leaders have said the nominee for Vice-President should not be from the Congress as the party is already sending one of its members to Rashtrapati Bhavan. Pratibha Patil, the UPA-Left nominee for President, was a Congress MLA and MP before she became Rajasthan governor.

Yechury today had nothing more to add to this. There was still time before the Vice-President’s election — due in August — and the issue was not even on the agenda of the CPM’s central committee meeting, he said.

The CPM leader did say, though, that the candidate would have to be someone who understood politics to be able to run the Rajya Sabha as its chairman.

“The Vice-President has to be somebody who knows the polity and functioning of the Rajya Sabha,” he said, asked if a non-politician could make the cut.