MPs begin voting in the high-stakes vice-presidential election

Parliamentarians from the ruling NDA and the Opposition INDIA bloc are exercising their franchise on Tuesday, 9 September, at the new parliament building in New Delhi, casting their votes in the much-anticipated vice-presidential election since the resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar.

The exercise, which will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., sees lawmakers from both Houses of Parliament participating by secret ballot, in accordance with established parliamentary procedure.

The contest pits NDA nominee and Maharashtra governor C.P. Radhakrishnan against INDIA bloc candidate and former Supreme Court judge B. Sudershan Reddy. The vice-president of India also serves as the ex-officio chairman of the Rajya Sabha, making the election significant for the functioning of the Upper House in particular — a role whose exercise has been contentious in prior iterations, even though Reddy has gone on record to say the Vice President’s chair is ‘not a political post’.

Battle for Rajya Sabha chair: Election to choose next vice-president today

Voting has been marked by meticulous adherence to protocol, thus far. Both alliances held preparatory meetings prior to the polling, with mock voting sessions conducted to familiarise members with the process.

MPs are not bound by party whips in this election, however, leaving them free to vote according to their own conscience.

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Security and administrative arrangements have been put in place to ensure smooth entry and exit for the voting parliamentarians, with strict adherence to confidentiality.

A special 'violet ink' pen is used to ensure that every MP’s ballot paper is indistinguishable from others.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, along with key union ministers and senior MPs, were among the first to cast their votes, signalling the formal commencement of the process.

Union ministers Kiren Rijiju and Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu and Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde have been appointed as official election agents for the process.

The electoral college for the vice-presidential election comprises 781 members, including 542 elected members of the Lok Sabha and 239 members of the Rajya Sabha (233 elected and 12 nominated, with six vacancies across both Houses).

The majority mark needed to win is 391 votes.

Counting of votes is scheduled for later in the evening, with the results expected to be announced shortly thereafter.

Political analysts are keeping a close watch on cross-voting and the voting patterns of independent MPs, as these could influence the final outcome despite the NDA’s numerical advantage in the combined strength of the two Houses.

Vice-presidential poll: NDA's test of numbers, optics, and conscience

However, at least three parties — the BJD from Odisha, the BRS from Telangana and the Akali Dal from Punjab — are abstaining from voting. That takes 12 MPs out of the reckoning.

The Naveen Patnaik-led BJD said it was continuing its tradition of staying equidistant from the Congress and BJP poles. This pulls out its 7 MPs across both Houses.

K.T. Rama Rao for the BRS, with 4 MPs, said it was abstaining in protest of the urea shortage and farmers’ woes in Telangana with no relief in sight.

The sole SAD parliamentarian, Harsimrat Kaur — the wife of Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal — is staying away over lack of relief during the floods in Punjab.

The election comes after the sudden resignation of former vice-president Jagdeep Dhankhar on 21 July, creating a leadership vacuum in the Rajya Sabha. Today’s vote is thus a crucial one for shaping the parliamentary balance in the Upper House and in Parliament as a whole (with the Lower House, the Lok Sabha, being led by BJP veteran Om Birla as the Speaker and Dhankhar too having been a long-time BJP loyalist).

With IANS inputs