Voting For 15th VP Of India Begins : Venkaiah or Gopalkrishna?:- The members of Parliament have started to cast their votes for the 15th Vice President of India. The voting will be on till 5 in the evening.
The ruling NDA’s candidate M Venkaiah Naidu is tipped to be the next Vice President. For marking their choice in the election, the MPs will use special pens.
The Election Commission officials said quoting precedents, the counting of votes will commence after polling and the results will be declared by 7 pm. As the election is through a secret ballot, no whip can be issued by political parties.
Before the voting began, Venkaiah Naidu said, “I am a non-party man. Majority of parties in India are supporting my candidature, confident that they all will vote in election.”
The NDA’s Vice Presidential candidate said he is not contesting against anybody, individual or party adding that he is contesting for Vice President of India.
Naidu also exuded confidence saying, “I have written a polite letter to everybody, response is very good. Confident that they all will support me.”
Meanwhile, Opposition candidate GopalKrishna Gandhi called Venkaiah Naidu an experienced person and said, “No competition as such between us, only technically there is.” He further added, “It is a fight based on constitutional principles, where I maintained complete civility and same has been done from other side too.”
On 10 August, the term of the present incumbent Hamid Ansari is coming to an end. The elected and nominated members of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha comprise the electoral college. The Vice President is elected by the Vice President, who is also the ex-officio chairman of the Rajya Sabha. The total strength of the two Houses is 790, but there are two vacancies in the Lok Sabha and one in the Rajya Sabha.
Following a judicial pronouncement, the BJP MP in Lok Sabha Chhedi Paswan is barred from casting vote. The BJP has 281 members, in the 545-member Lok Sabha. The NDA led by BJP, has 338 members. The BJP as of now has 56 members, while the Congress with 59 is the single largest party, in the 243-member Rajya Sabha.
The BJP, with its wins in the recent Assembly polls, is set to emerge as the single largest party in the Rajya Sabha too next year. It is expected that the NDA’s tally would be close to 100. However, it would still be short of a majority in the upper house. The one who bags 50% plus one votes of the total valid votes cast will win the poll.
SUPRAJA
