M. Venkaiah Naidu was elected the 13th Vice-President of India on Saturday. The polling was held earlier in the day, and results were declared in the evening.
Mr. Naidu polled a massive 516 of the total 760 votes, aided by cross-voting by Opposition MPs in the 15th vice-presidential elections, NDA Ministers said. Opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi polled 244 votes. The elections saw the highest polling percentage at 98.12%, with 14 MPs failing to turn up to vote.
Unprecedented
While the result of the contest was a foregone conclusion, the margin of Mr. Naidu’s victory was the largest in recent elections.
In 2002, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat (the last NDA nominee to win) polled 454 votes to Sushil Kumar Shinde’s 305 votes. Outgoing Vice-President Hamid Ansari polled 490 votes to 238 of the NDA’s Jaswant Singh. BJP leaders, who oversaw the election for the party, said that between 17 and 20 MPs cross-voted, but no details were available on the MPs.
“We had calculated that we would get 490 votes, which is also above the quota (majority mark) of 381 votes, but this is unprecedented,” said a senior general secretary of the BJP. Mr. Naidu himself appeared calm as he accepted congratulations on his victory and said, “With all humility, I express my gratitude to every MP who supported my candidature cutting across party lines. I promise to uphold the Constitution and the high standards set by my esteemed predecessors.”
The Vice-President elect’s immediate plans were to travel to Bengaluru on Sunday and visit the Sri Venkateswara temple in Tirupati after which he would be visiting his ancestral village in Andhra Pradesh. The swearing-in ceremony is scheduled for on August 11.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his congratulatory message harked back to his long association with Mr. Naidu as BJP leaders.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi wished the Vice-President elect with a word of caution on his challenges as presiding officer in the Rajya Sabha.