The Vice President election is underway in Parliament with MPs from both ruling and opposition parties casting their votes. PM Modi, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, and other key leaders exercised their franchise. The contest is between NDA nominee CP Radhakrishnan and Opposition’s Justice B Sudershan Reddy.
Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla casting his vote for VP election. Pic.PTI
During the ongoing Vice President elections at the Parliament in India, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla also cast his vote.
News agency ANI reported that polling began at around 10 am on Tuesday morning and will continue until 5 pm, with all Members of Parliament eligible to cast their votes.
The ongoing voting procedure is being conducted under the supervision of the returning officer, with several MPs required to follow specific guidelines to ensure their ballots are valid.
Earlier on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the first one to arrive at Parliament House right as voting started at 10 AM, reported by the news agency ANI.
While the voting is scheduled to be concluded at 5 pm on Tuesday, the counting of votes is set to happen at 6 pm in the same room where the voting took place.
The contest for the Vice President of India is fought between the NDA nominee and Maharashtra Governor CP Radhakrishnan, and the Opposition candidate, former Supreme Court judge Justice B Sudershan Reddy.
Leaders across party lines, from union ministers to opposition leaders, took part, giving their choice for the VP candidate through a paper ballot.
From the ruling party, prominent leaders and Union Ministers such as Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and Kiren Rijiju also cast their votes. Moreover, the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, who was presiding over the upper house proceedings in the absence of the Vice President, also cast his vote, among others.
From the Opposition's side, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, and MPs Shashi Tharoor, Priyanka Gandhi, and Jairam Ramesh cast their votes in the morning. Furthermore, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, with other opposition MPs, also cast their votes for the vice president’s election.
Surprisingly, the jailed Baramulla MP, who is famously known as 'Engineer Rashid', got special permission from the court to allow him to cast his vote.
While the election process of the vice president was going on with full enthusiasm, some parties decided to abstain or boycott the elections altogether.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) from Punjab, having one MP in the Lok Sabha, said that both the centre and state governments have not properly helped the flood victims in the state and decided to boycott the election. Biju Janata Dal (BJD) from Odisha, having seven Rajya Sabha MPs, has also decided to abstain.
(With inputs from ANI)
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