Even as a host of parties announced their support for Congress’ Margaret Alva as the joint Opposition candidate in the vice presidential elections, the numbers are firmly in favour of the NDA candidate Jagdeep Dhankhar, the former West Bengal governor.
The election of the next vice president of India will be held on August 6 and the results will be announced the same day. The new veep will succeed M. Venkaiah Naidu, whose five-year tenure comes to an end on August 10.
The vice president of India, the second-highest constitutional post in the country, is elected through a secret ballot by an electoral college comprising all members of the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha, including its nominated members.
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At present, there are 790 members in the electoral college — 233 elected members and 12 nominated members of the Rajya Sabha and 543 elected members and two nominated members of the Lok Sabha.
For a candidate to win the vice presidential elections, they will have to secure more than 395 votes in the polling process. Here’s a breakup of the political parties supporting the two candidates:
Parties supporting Dhankhar
Although the estimated vote share of the two candidates is not known yet, Dhankhar is likely to get two-thirds of the votes as the BJP alone has 91 members in the Rajya Sabha and 303 in the Lok Sabha. Dhankhar will also get the support of regional parties like the YSR Congress Party, Janata Dal (United), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), All India Anna Dravidar Munnetra Kazhagam and the Shiv Sena. With their support, the NDA candidate is likely to get more than 515 votes, which is enough for a comfortable win.
On the other hand, Alva is likely to receive around 190-200 votes.
Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress, which has 16 MPs in the Rajya Sabha and 23 in the Lok Sabha, has decided to abstain from vice presidential elections.
