The election for the next Vice President of India will be held today at the Parliament House between 10 am and 5 pm. The results will be announced the same day. Former Governor of West Bengal Jagdeep Dhankhar is set to sail through in the elections with the support of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, while Opposition's Margaret Alva, who served as the Governor of Rajasthan, is expected to be a distant second.
The 16th Vice President of India will be sworn in to office on August 11, a day after the tenure of the current VP M Venkaiah Naidu ends.
Here are some key things to know before the start of the Vice President elections today.
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The Vice President will be elected through secret ballot by an electoral college comprising 788 MPs, including 245 from the Rajya Sabha and 543 from the Lok Sabha.
Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) had earlier said it would abstain from voting on Saturday, alleging that the party was not consulted before the Opposition bloc proposed the name of Margaret Alva as their candidate. The TMC has 16 members in the Rajya Sabha and 23 MPs in Lok Sabha.
Apart from the eight vacant seats in Upper House and the 36 MPs of Trinamool Congress, who will abstain from voting, 744 members are likely to participate in the elections.
NDA candidate Jagdeep Dhankhar is likely to get 527 votes, far higher than the 372 required to win.
He is expected to get 70 percent of the total votes, which is two percent more than what M Venkaiah Naidu received in the previous elections.
Dhankhar will be supported by regional parties like the Janata Dal (United), YSRCP, BSP, AIADMK and Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde). Apart from this, he will also receive votes from 394 MPs of the BJP and five nominated members.
Apart from the Congress, Alva is being supported by regional parties like Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), DMK, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Nationalist Congress Party, Samajwadi Party, Left parties, Aam Aadmi Party and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM).
Going by the support announced by parties for her candidature so far, Alva is likely to receive 26 percent votes (around 200).
On Thursday, leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge hosted a dinner for all opposition MPs, thanking them for their support for Alva.
On Friday, Dhankhar also met some BJP MPs at his residence, including Sushil Kumar Modi, Gautam Gambhir and Rajyavardhan Rathore.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
