PremiumVice Presidential election 2022: NDA candidate Jagdeep Dhankhar on Saturday won the vice presidential election. Dhankhar secured 528 votes over Opposition candidate Margaret Alva's 182, Utpal Kumar Singh, Lok Sabha Secretary-General said. The counting of votes for the vice presidential election started on Saturday. As many as 725 Members of Parliament voted in the election. National Democratic Alliance (NDA) nominee and former West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar (71) was pitted against joint Opposition candidate Margaret Alva (80).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Jagdeep Dhankhar to congratulate him on his election as Vice President.
Jagdeep Dhankhar will take the oath of office on August 11, a day after the term of the incumbent Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu ends.
NDA candidate Jagdeep Dhankhar was declared elected as the Vice President of India on Saturday after he bagged 528 votes against his rival candidate Margaret Alva's 182.
The returning officer of the vice presidential election said of the total 780 electors, 725 cast their ballots but 15 votes were found to be invalid.
The turnout was 92.94%. Of all the valid votes, Dhankhar secured 74.36%.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief JP Nadda arrives at the residence of NDA candidate Jagdeep Dhankhar in Delhi, after the latter was elected as the 14th Vice President of India.
Jagdeep Dhankhar won by 346 votes as he bagged 528 of the total 725 votes that were cast.
Opposition candidate Margaret Alva received 182 votes.
-Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was the first Vice President of independent India, elected to the office in 1952.
-The only Vice President to be re-elected for a second term was Dr. S Radhakrishnan, who again became the Vice President in the year 1957.
-No Vice President, in the history of independent India, has had to face removal proceedings before the expiry of the term of office.
-K R Narayanan, Shankar Dayal Sharma, R Venkataraman, V V Giri, Zakir Hussain and Dr S Radhakrishnan, each of whom was a President of India at different points in time, remained Vice Presidents before they were elected as Presidents.
All MPs of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, including nominated members, are entitled to vote in the vice presidential election. The two Houses of Parliament together have a sanctioned strength of 788 MPs, of which there are eight vacancies in the Upper House.
With the ruling BJP having an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha and 91 members in the Rajya Sabha as a result Dhankhar has a clear edge over his rival.
-The Vice President shall discharge the functions of the President during the temporary absence of the President due to illness or any other cause.
-The Vice President shall act as the President, in case of any vacancy in the office of the President by reason of his death, resignation, removal through impeachment or otherwise.
-The Vice President shall take over the duties of the President until a new President is elected and resumes office.
-When the Vice President acts as, or discharges the functions of the President, he or she immediately ceases to perform the normal functions of being the Chairman of the Council of States.
The office of the Vice President is the second highest constitutional post in independent India. The Vice President is the 'ex-officio' Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha.
The office of the Vice President in India is complementary to that of the President, in that, the Vice President takes over the role of the President in the latter’s absence. In other words, the role of the Vice President is to assist the President in being the nominal head of the Republic of India.
However, one must remember that the office of the President and the Vice President cannot be combined in one person, as per the Constitution of India.
The next Vice-President of the country will take the oath of office on August 11, a day after the term of the incumbent Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu ends.
Around 93% polling was recorded in the vice presidential election on Saturday. Of the total 780 MPs, as many as 725 MPs voted till 5 pm. More than 50 MPs did not cast their vote.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his predecessor Manmohan Singh cast their ballots early in the day, while opposition leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi voted in the afternoon.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was amongst the first leaders to cast his vote. The other big names who cast their vote today include
-Union Ministers Amit Shah
-Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh
- BJP president JP Nadda
-Congress leader Rahul Gandhi
-Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
-Ashwini Vaishnaw
-Anurag Thakur
-S Jaishankar
-Hema Malini
-Sonia Gandhi
-Nirmala Sitharaman
-Jyotiraditya Scindia
The Vice-President is elected by an electoral college consisting of members of both Houses of Parliament (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha), in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote.
The voting is by secret ballot. The Electoral College to elect a person to the office of the Vice-President consists of all members of both Houses of Parliament.
The counting started at 6 pm under the supervision of the Lok Sabha Secretary General, who is the returning officer for the election. The polling for India's 14 Vice Presidential poll started at 10 am on August 6.
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