Polling for the vice presidential election is set to be held today on 6 August. Jagdeep Dhankhar (71) is a Jat leader from Rajasthan and was also former Governor of West Bengal while and Margaret Alva (80) is a Congress veteran and has served as Governor of Rajasthan.
The polling will take place between 10 am and 5 pm, followed by the counting of votes on the same day. The next Vice President of India will take oath on August 11, a day after the tenure of the incumbent VP M Venkaiah Naidu ends. With numbers stacked in favour of the NDA, former West Bengal governor Dhankhar is set for an easy win.
Also read: How the Vice-President of India is elected? Read here
Here are 10 points you need to know:
1. NDA candidate Jagdeep Dhankhar is set for an easy win with numbers falling in his favour.
2. Cracks were visible in Opposition unity as Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress decided to abstain from voting on Saturday, alleging a lack of consultations while deciding on the name of Alva.
3. Members of Parliament of both houses will vote to elect the 16th vice-president of India in the election.
4. With the support of some regional parties like the Janta Dal (United), YSRCP, BSP, AIADMK and Shiv Sena, the NDA nominee is likely to get over 515 votes, enough for a comfortable win for him.
5. Alva, however, received the backing of regional party Telangana Rashtra Samithi(TRS) on Friday, two days after Aam Aadmi Party and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) lent their support to the opposition candidate. The AIMIM has also extended its support to Alva.
5. Alva is likely to get over 200 votes, going by the support announced by parties for her candidature so far.
6. The Trinamool Congress, which has 23 MPs in Lok Sabha and 16 in Rajya Sabha, has decided to stay away from the vice presidential election.
7. Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge also hosted a dinner on Thursday night to thank all opposition MPs who are supporting Alva.
8. Dhankhar too met a number of BJP MPs at his residence on Friday. These include Sushil Kumar Modi, Gautam Gambhir, Rajyavardhan Rathore, Rajendra Agrawal, Pradeep Choudhary and Kartikeya Sharma, among others. He has been meeting party MPs while seeking their support for the poll.
9. The electoral college in the vice presidential election comprises a total of 788 members of both Houses of Parliament. Since all the electors are members of both Houses of Parliament, the value of vote of each MP would be the same — one, the Election Commission has said. A candidate needs 20 electors as proposers and at least another 20 electors as seconders for his nomination in the Vice President elections. The candidate also has to make a security deposit of Rs15,000
10. The elections for the President and Vice President are tightly monitored and there is no concept of open voting in this election. Showing the ballot to anyone under any circumstances in the case of presidential and vice-presidential elections is totally prohibited, the EC has cautioned, adding that parties cannot issue whips to their MPs in the matter of voting. Voting for the Vice President election will take place in Parliament, unlike the presidential polls where voting takes place in multiple locations as elected MLAs, not nominated, also form part of the electoral college.
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