NEW DELHI – Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the first person to vote in the important vice presidential election on Tuesday morning. The vote that is going on in the Parliament House right now was needed since former Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar suddenly quit on July 21, saying health grounds were the reason.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate, C.P. Radhakrishnan, and the INDIA bloc’s united opposition candidate, former Supreme Court judge B. Sudershan Reddy, are running against each other in the election. Since the NDA has a strong majority in the electoral college, Radhakrishnan is widely seen as the favorite for the job.
The electoral college for the Vice Presidential election is made up of all the elected and nominated members of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. State legislative assembly members do not vote in the presidential election. The votes, which were cast in secret, will be counted later in the day, and the results are expected to be available in the late evening.
The NDA candidate has chosen Kiren Rijiju and Ram Mohan Naidu, both of whom are union ministers, as well as Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde as their election agents. The INDIA bloc has also hired its own people to watch over the vote, which is taking place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
C.P. Radhakrishnan is a long-time BJP leader from Tamil Nadu who is now the Governor of Maharashtra. He has a big numerical advantage because the NDA has the support of about 427 MPs in the 781-member electoral college, which is significantly above the 391 needed for a majority. He also has the support of parties that are not part of the NDA or INDIA blocs, like the YSR Congress Party.
B. Sudershan Reddy, the candidate from the INDIA group, used to be a judge in the Supreme Court in Telangana. He is known for a number of important decisions, and the opposition has called the election a “ideological battle” even though it is clearly a numbers game.
The Election Commission of India administers the election process. A single transferable vote system is used to elect the Vice President. A candidate must get more than 50% of the valid votes cast to win. The Returning Officer for the election is the Secretary-General of either the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha.
After the votes are counted, the results should be announced later tonight.