New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday cast the first vote in the vice-presidential elections, which are underway in the Parliament House. It will be a day of numbers, loyalties, and quiet suspense as MPs gather this morning to elect India’s 14th Vice President, a contest that pits NDA’s CP Radhakrishnan against the INDIA bloc’s Justice B Sudershan Reddy.
The election comes fifty days after Jagdeep Dhankhar resigned from the post on July 21, citing health reasons. His resignation, submitted under Article 67(a) of the Constitution, took effect immediately. Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra cast their votes at the Parliament House for the Vice President election. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and Congress National President Mallikarjun Kharge cast their vote for the Vice Presidential election at the Parliament House. BJP MP Kangana Ranaut casts her vote at the Parliament for the Vice President election
Mr Radhakrishnan is the Governor of Maharashtra, while Mr Reddy is a retired Supreme Court judge. The election comes after Jagdeep Dhankhar resigned, citing health concerns, in July.The voting takes place inside Parliament House, New Delhi. It will begin at 10 am and continue until 5 pm. Once the polling ends, the ballots will be sealed, and counting will begin after 6 pm. The results are expected late at night.
The Vice President is elected by an electoral college consisting of all members of both Houses of Parliament. This includes elected as well as nominated MPs from the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. At present, 788 MPs are eligible to vote. A valid nomination requires the support of at least 20 proposers and 20 seconders from among MPs, along with a security deposit of Rs 15,000. The election is conducted through a secret ballot using the single transferable vote (STV) system of proportional representation. MPs rank the candidates in order of preference: “1” for their first choice, “2” for their second, and so on.
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