The BRICS TimesRajya Sabha Secretary-General P.C. Mody has been appointed Returning Officer for the Vice President election. Voting will be conducted through the secret ballot using the single transferable vote system, where MPs mark candidate preferences with special ink pens on white ballot papers.
Voting for India’s 17th Vice President will take place today inside the Parliament House. The contest is between NDA’s nominee C.P. Radhakrishnan and INDIA Bloc’s candidate Justice B. Sudarshan Reddy. This election is happening after the sudden resignation of the 16th Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, who stepped down on July 21 citing health issues.
The polling will begin at 10 a.m. and continue until 5 p.m. in Room No. F-101, Vasudha. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to cast his vote at 10 a.m. Before the voting process starts, all NDA lawmakers will attend a breakfast meeting at 9:30 a.m. Senior Union Ministers will host their respective state MPs. Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will meet MPs from Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh at his residence.
Number Game in Vice Presidential Election
Members from both the Lok Sabha (543 MPs) and the Rajya Sabha (233 elected and 12 nominated MPs) are eligible to cast their votes. At present, five Rajya Sabha seats and one Lok Sabha seat are vacant, authorizing 781 MPs to vote. However, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS, 4 MPs), Biju Janata Dal (BJD, 7 MPs) and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD, 3 MPs) have instructed their MPs to stay away from voting, which could reduce the total voters to 767.
Voting Procedure
Rajya Sabha Secretary-General P.C. Mody has been appointed as the Returning Officer for the election. Voting will follow the single transferable vote system of proportional representation and will remain secret. MPs will use a special ink pen on white ballot papers to mark priority numbers (1, 2, 3…) beside the candidates’ names. Postal ballots are permitted only for MPs under preventive detention, like Sheikh Abdul Rashid and Amritpal Singh, provided a certificate is issued by the jail authority.
Counting of Votes and Results
The counting will begin with the first preference votes. Any candidate securing over 50% votes will be declared the winner. If neither candidate achieves majority, the one with the least votes will be eliminated and ballots will be transferred based on next preferences. The process will continue until a majority is established. Invalid votes, such as unclear preferences, wrong markings, or unsigned ballots, will be rejected. Candidates failing to secure at least one-sixth of valid votes (around 128 votes) will forfeit their deposit of ₹15,000.
Possibility of Cross Voting
In both Presidential and Vice Presidential elections, no party symbols are used, and whips do not apply. The anti-defection law also does not hold, giving MPs the freedom to vote as they wish. This raises the possibility of cross voting. The election gains further importance because the newly elected Vice President will also serve as the Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha. For this reason, both the NDA led by BJP and the INDIA Bloc led by Congress have been making strong preparations for today’s election.
Akshay Didwaniya
