New Delhi- NDA candidate CP Radhakrishnan was elected the new Vice President of India. The Returning Officer announced that former Maharashtra Governor CP Radhakrishnan has won the Vice Presidential election and he got 452 votes. CP Radhakrishnan defeated his opponent Justice B Sudarshan Reddy who got 300 votes.
Earlier, 769 MPs including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Congress Parliamentary Party chief Sonia Gandhi, Congress party president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi cast their votes for the Vice Presidential election.
A total of 98 percent voting was recorded in the Vice Presidential election. Voting began at 10 am and ended at 5 pm, while the counting of votes began at 6 pm.
Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh claimed that the opposition remained united and all its 315 MPs participated in the voting.
The electoral college for the election of the country's 17th Vice President includes 233 elected members of the Rajya Sabha (five seats are currently vacant), 12 nominated members and 543 elected members of the Lok Sabha (one seat is currently vacant). Prime Minister Modi was the first to cast his vote.
Modi, along with Union Ministers Kiren Rijiju, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Jitendra Singh and L. Murugan, cast his vote at a polling booth set up in Room No. 101 of the Vasudha of Parliament House.
During the polling, there was a direct contest between the ruling NDA candidate CP Radhakrishnan and the joint candidate of the 'India' alliance B. Sudarshan Reddy. However, in terms of numbers, the BJP-led NDA candidate Radhakrishnan had the upper hand. Jagdidh Dhankhar resigned unexpectedly on July 21, the first day of the monsoon session, citing health reasons, leading to an election for the Vice President.
This was the third time since independence that a Vice President had resigned midway through his term. Earlier, V.V. Giri and R. Venkataraman had resigned from the post of Vice President to contest the presidential elections.
According to Article 66 of the Constitution, the Vice President is elected by the members of the Electoral College consisting of members of both Houses of Parliament, which is based on the system of proportional representation through single transferable vote.