NEW DELHI, Sept. 8 -- The stage is set for a high-stakes face-off in the vice-presidential election that will be held on Tuesday, with the ruling NDA alliance nominee, senior BJP leader and former Maharashtra Governor CP Radhakrishnan against the Opposition INDIA bloc's candidate, former Supreme Court judge B Sudershan Reddy. The contest is being seen as a direct battle between the two major political alliances and is likely to leave an imprint on the national politics.
Polling will be held in Parliament House between 10 am and 5 pm, with Members of Parliament casting their votes through a secret ballot. Counting will commence at 6 pm, and the results are expected to be declared the same evening, paving the way for the swearing-in of the country's new vice president. The election was necessitated following the surprise resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar in July, citing health reasons.
The electoral college for the vice-presidential election comprises 781 MPs (238 from Rajya Sabha and 542 from Lok Sabha; one Lok Sabha and six Rajya Sabha seats are currently vacant). The majority mark is 391.
The NDA commands 425 MPs and also has the support of the YSR Congress Party (11 MPs), taking its tally to 436. The Opposition INDIA bloc is backed by 324 MPs.
Although the NDA is expected to win, a tight contest is on the cards and the margin this time is likely to be narrower than in 2022, when Jagdeep Dhankhar defeated Margaret Alva by 346 votes. Political analysts say the difference this time could be 100-125 votes.
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 BJP-led NDA and the Congress-led Opposition grouping have held separate meetings with their respective MPs on poll eve to sensitise them about the election process and also held mock polls.
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.
"The figures may be marked in the international form of Indian numerals or in the Roman form or in the form used in any Indian language but shall not be indicated in words," the rules of the vice presidential election state.
The electoral college for the vice-presidential election comprises members from the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabhas. The 12 nominated members of the Rajya Sabha are also eligible to vote in the election.
The Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) and the Biju Janata Dal have decided to abstain from voting in the election. The BRS has no representation in Lok Sabha, but it has four MPs in the Rajya Sabha.
The BJD, headed by former Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik, said it took the decision as part of its policy of "maintaining an equal distance" from both the BJP-led NDA and Congress-led INDIA bloc at the national level. BJD MPs in 2012 had also abstained from voting in the vice-presidential elections. BJD MPs in 2012 had also abstained from voting in the vice-presidential elections. BJD has only seven MPs in the Rajya Sabha and none in Lok Sabha.
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.
The NDA nominee Radhakrishnan, 67, is being projected as an untainted leader with rich political and administrative experience for the vice president's office. He served as a two-term member of the Lok Sabha from Coimbatore during the tenure of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and later went on to lead the saffron party in Tamil Nadu.
Justice Reddy (79), who retired from the apex court in July 2011, is a veteran jurist known for several landmark judgments criticising the then Union government for showing slackness in probing black-money cases.
As an apex court judge, Reddy ordered the formation of a special investigation team to take all steps for bringing back unaccounted monies unlawfully kept in bank accounts abroad. Retrieving black money deposited in foreign banks was a key electoral plank of the BJP ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha election. In a fervent appeal to MPs ahead of the vice presidential polls, Reddy on Sunday exhorted them not to let party loyalty guide their choice and asserted that by voting for him, they would be ensuring that the Rajya Sabha stands as a true temple of democracy.
In a video message, Reddy told the MPs that this is not just a vote to elect their vice-president but is a vote for the spirit of India itself.
The Congress-led INDIA bloc is projecting Reddy as a consistent and courageous champion of social, economic and political justice. Reddy has had a long and eminent legal career, including as a judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, the chief justice of the Gauhati High Court and a judge of the Supreme Court.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.