NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi were among prominent political leaders who cast their vote on Saturday in the Vice-Presidential election.
The voting to elect the country’s 14th Vice President concluded at 5 pm in Parliament House. The counting of votes was taken up later. The contest is between NDA candidate Jagdeep Dhankhar, former West Bengal Governor, and the Opposition candidate Margaret Alva, a former Union minister.
The Vice-President is elected by an electoral college consisting of members of both Houses of Parliament, in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. The voting is by secret ballot.
The polling began at 10 am. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was amongst the first leaders to cast his vote. Union Ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh and BJP president JP Nadda also cast their votes.
Dr Manmohan Singh arrived in wheelchair to cast his vote. The 89-year-old senior leader Congress leader had also come to vote in a wheelchair for the presidential elections. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also cast his vote besides other MPs. The Vice-President, who is also Chairman of Rajya Sabha, is not a member of the House.
The next Vice-President of the country will take the oath of office on August 11, a day after the term of the incumbent Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu ends.
The JDU, YSRCP, BSP, AIADMK have expressed their support for Dhankhar. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) have expressed their support for Alva. The Trinamool Congress abstained from the vote.
Given the BJP-led NDA’s strength in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and support to its candidate by some other parties, Dhankhar has a clear advantage in the vice-presidential election. Dhankhar became the Governor of West Bengal in July 2019. He tendered his resignation as the Governor of West Bengal before filing his nomination in the vice-presidential election. (ANI)