The voting to elect India's new vice president concluded at 5pm in Parliament premises on Tuesday. Election officials will begin counting the votes at 6pm.
The votes will be counted in the same room where the election was held, on the first floor of the Parliament House in the national capital. The 17th vice presidential elections witnessed brisk voting, with over 97 per cent of the votes polled before 5pm.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the first to exercise his franchise in the crucial contest. While the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance has nominated Maharashtra Governor C.P. Radhakrishnan, the Opposition INDIA bloc has fielded former Supreme Court judge B. Sudershan Reddy.
The prime minister was accompanied by Union Ministers Kiren Rijiju, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Jitendra Singh and L. Murugan at the time of voting.
Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav, and Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and Nasser Hussain were also among early voters who exercised their franchise. Lok Sabha MP from Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla, Engineer Rashid, arrived in police custody to vote following permission from a court.
The ruling NDA enjoys a clear edge in the poll necessitated by the sudden resignation of former vice president Jagdeep Dhankhar. The MPs are not bound by party whips to vote in the vice presidential election, which takes place under a secret ballot system.
The electoral college for vice president election comprises members from the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, and the current strength of the electoral college is 781, as six seats are vacant in the Rajya Sabha and one in the Lok Sabha. The winning candidate must gain a majority of 391 votes. The NDA has 425 MPs, while the opposition camp has the backing of 324.
