India

Vice President Election 2017: Voting underway

Vice President Election 2017: Voting underway

The voting is underway for the vice president election 2017. Today, MP’s  queued up outside Parliament House to elect the country’s next Vice President. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the first to cast his vote. The vice presidential voting began at 10 am. And the counting of the voting will be done in the evening. While the results would be announced later on Saturday.

This time for vice president election the NDA candidate M. Venkaiah Naidu is contesting against the opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi. The voting will continue till 5 pm as there are 790 members of both Houses of the Parliament will take part. On Friday the ruling combines made last minute arrangements to muster maximum support along with PM Modi giving a pep talk to MPs, including those from parties outside the NDA, at a dinner hosted by him.

At the beginning of the voting session today, Venkaiah Naidu expressed confidence that majority parties will vote for him. The Lok Sabha currently has 545 members and the Rajya Sabha 244. The Lok Sabha has two vacancies, while the Rajya Sabha has one vacancy. He seems to be in a comfortable position as the NDA has a clear majority in the Lok Sabha and has the support of some political parties from the south in an effective electoral college of 787 members.

According to BJP officials, apart from the NDA’s 81 Rajya Sabha members and 338 Lok Sabha members, members of both Houses of the AIADMK (50), YSR Congress (10) and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (14) will also vote in favour of Naidu. With around support of 493 members, Naidu is all set to cross the magic figure of 394. However, BJP leaders are hopeful of crossing the 500 mark. Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi, a former West Bengal Governor and a diplomat, has the support of the Congress, the Left parties, Nationalist Congress Party, DMK, Trinamool Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party and National Conference.

Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi, a former West Bengal Governor and a diplomat, has a support of the Congress, the Left parties, Nationalist Congress Party, DMK, Trinamool Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party and National Conference.Janata Dal-United, which is now a part of NDA, had announced support for Gandhi and is likely to vote in his favour.

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Pallavi Parmar

Journalism is my profession, Blogging and Writing are my passion, Travelling is my love, Food is my life and Feminist by nature.