Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP chief J.P. Nadda, Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and MPs from the ruling and opposition parties voted in the election of the country’s new Vice-President on Saturday in the Parliament House complex.
Modi exercised his right to vote by arriving at Parliament at 10 a.m. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh voted in a wheelchair because he is ill. Several Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members voted, including Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh.
Voting in the Vice-Presidential election began at 10 a.m. and will end at 5 p.m. The votes will be counted in the evening itself, and the result is likely to come by 7 p.m.
The NDA’s Jagdeep Dhankhar and the Opposition’s Margaret Alva are both running for Vice President.
In the election of the Vice-President, 788 MPs from both Houses of Parliament are eligible to vote.
In terms of numbers, NDA candidate Jagdeep Dhankhar is the most likely to win, but the BJP is working on a strategy similar to the Presidential election to get more and more MPs’ votes so that its candidate can win by a large margin.
The Trinamool Congress, a major opposition party, has decided not to run for Vice President. The Biju Janata Dal (BJD), YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have all declared their support for the NDA candidate to ensure a big victory for Dhankhar.
Source:OCN