Vice President Poll Jagdeep Dhankhar vs Margaret Alva: Voting for Vice President election over, counting going on
New Delhi: The voting in the Vice Presidential election, which started at 10 am on Saturday at Parliament House, ended by 5 pm and the counting process began just after.
Returning Officer for the Vice Presidential election and Secretary General Lok Sabha Utpal Kumar Singh is scheduled to brief the media after conclusion of the counting.
More than 85 per cent of MPs voted by 2 pm.
The contest is clearly tilted in favour of NDA's candidate Jagdeep Dhankhar, who appears to be in a comfortable position to win against Opposition candidate Margaret Alva.
The BJP alone has 394 of 780 total votes in the electoral college of Vice President. The percentage of votes in favour of Dhankhar is likely to be around 70.
Lack of unity among NDA partners has further hurt Alva's prospects as Mamata Banerjee-led AITC announced abstain from voting in the polls. The AITC has 36 MPs in both Houses of Parliament.
Andhra Pradesh's ruling YSRCP, Mayawati's BSP and Naveen Patnaik’s BJD have once again supported to the NDA candidate.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the first leaders to cast his vote.
Besides, Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Piyush Goyal Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Anurag Thakur, Arjun Ram Meghwal, V Muraleedharan Nitin Gadkari, Dharmendra Pradhan, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, BJP President JP Nadda and Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh were some other prominent leaders who cast their votes early.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress interim President and MP Sonia Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, AAP MPs Harbhajan Singh and Sanjay Singh, DMK MP Kanimozhi, BJP MP Ravi Kishan and Hema Malini also voted for the candidate of their choice.
The election is held in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. The voting is held through a secret ballot.
Vice President will take oath on August 14, a day M. Venkaiah Naidu's term expires.
As per the rule, an election to fill a vacancy caused by the expiry of the term of office of the Vice President should be completed before the expiry of the term of the incumbent.
The Vice President is mandated by the constitution to act as the chairperson of the Rajya Sabha.
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