Voting for the vice-presidential elections will be held at 10 am on Saturday. Former Union minister Venkaiah Naidu is the National Democratic Alliance’s candidate and is up against the Opposition’s candidate Gopal Krishna Gandhi, a former governor of West Bengal.
With the Bharatiya Janata Party in the majority in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, Naidu is expected to win without much difficulty. However, a day before the polls, 16 BJP lawmakers failed to cast their ballot correctly at a “dummy vote” workshop organised to give them some practice, NDTV reported. MPs had cast 21 incorrect votes during the presidential elections, most of them from the BJP, a gaffe that had left party president Amit Shah fuming.
Current Vice President Hamid Ansari’s term ends on August 10. The vice president runs the proceedings of the Rajya Sabha, and is elected by MPs from both Houses.
The BJP on Thursday took over as the single largest party in the Upper House, with 58 legislators as against the Congress’ 57. The NDA has 337 seats in the Lok Sabha and 80 in the Rajya Sabha, but is also expected get support from a number of other parties including the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
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