New Delhi, Sept. 8 -- Leaders of the Opposition INDIA Bloc held a meeting in the Parliament complex on Monday in a show of unity on the eve of the vice presidential election, and urged MPs to listen to their inner conscience and vote independently in this "ideological battle".
The MPs were told not to let their vote go to waste in the September 9 vice presidential poll and were informed about the procedure of casting votes, while exuding confidence about their victory and leaving nothing to chance.
Sources said the Opposition MPs were urged to listen to their "inner conscience" before casting their votes and not cast an invalid vote. The last vice-presidential polls saw some votes declared invalid.
The Parliamentarians also took part in a mock poll for Tuesday's election.
Opposition MPs were told to only mark preference '1' in their ballot and not mark anyone as their second preference on the ballot paper. The second preference votes are counted only in case there is a tie between the two candidates.
Top leaders of the Congress, Samajwadi Party, DMK, TMC, RJD, JMM, Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP (SP), CPI and CPI-M met in the Central Hall of Samvidhan Sadan (old Parliament building) and were briefed about the election process of Tuesday, in which members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha are eligible to vote.
Ruling NDA nominee C P Radhakrishnan and joint Opposition candidate B Sudarshan Reddy are pitted against each other in a direct contest for the vice-presidential election.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has a clear edge in the poll necessitated by the sudden resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar on July 21. The vice-presidential poll has been described by the Opposition as an ideological battle, even as the numbers are stacked in favour of the NDA.
Members of Parliament are not bound by party whips to vote in the vice presidential election, which takes place under a secret ballot system.
The MPs will be handed out ballot papers containing the names of the two contesting candidates and will have to mark their preference by writing the figure '1' opposite the name of the candidate of their choice.
While SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav welcomed all those present, Congress leader and chief whip of the Congress in Rajya Sabha Jairam Ramesh informed the MPs about the voting procedure.
The Opposition has nominated Congress leaders Naseer Hussain and Manickam Tagore, besides TMC leader Shatabdi Roy, as the polling agents for their joint candidate Reddy. Shaktisinh Gohil and Manickam Tagore have been nominated as his counting agents.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.