Members of Parliament will on Saturday vote to elect the next Vice President of the country. Given the BJP-led NDA’s numbers in Parliament, Jagdeep Dhankhar is all set to succeed Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu whose term of office comes to an end on August 10. Dhankhar is pitted against the Opposition candidate Margaret Alva.
According to Article 65 of the Indian Constitution, the Vice President, who is also ex officio Chairman of the Council of the States (Rajya Sabha), shall act as President in the event of the occurrence of any vacancy in the office of the President by reason of his death, resignation or removal, or otherwise.
The 80-year-old Alva is a Congress veteran and has served as governor of Rajasthan, while the 71-year-old Dhankhar is a Jat leader from Rajasthan and has served as governor of West Bengal. While polling will be held from 10 am to 5 pm on Saturday, the ballots will be counted immediately after that. In the evening, the returning officer will announce the name of the next vice president.
Members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, including nominated members, are eligible to vote in the vice presidential poll.
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. The election is held in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of a single transferable vote and the voting at such election is by secret ballot.
There is no concept of open voting in this election and 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 whip to its MPs in the matter of voting. Unlike the presidential poll where voting takes place in multiple locations as elected MLAs, not nominated, also form part of the electoral college, in the vice presidential election, voting takes place in Parliament House.
(with inputs from PTI)
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