Around 98.21% voter turnout was recorded in the vice-presidential elections on Saturday, ANI reported. Out of the 785 MPs who are eligible for voting, 771 cast their vote. Counting of votes is expected to begin at 6 pm and the results will be announced by 7 pm.

The odds are stacked against the Opposition’s candidate, former West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi. The National Democratic Alliance’s nominee Venkaiah Naidu is expected to win.

Naidu, Union minsters Ram Vilas Paswan, Ashok Gajapathi Raju and Bharatiya Janata Party’s Delhi chief Manoj Tiwari were among the first to arrive in Parliament to cast their vote. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also cast his vote.

Naidu said he was confident that several major parties would vote for him. “I am known to all members of Parliament and they are known to me,” Naidu told reporters before leaving for Parliament to vote. “That is why I am not even campaigning.”

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He said he had written to all parties seeking their support. “I am not contesting against anybody, individual or any party, I am contesting for vice president of India,” he said.

Meanwhile, Gandhi praised Naidu and said he was an experienced politician. “It is a fight based on constitutional principles where I maintained complete civility and the same has been done from other side too,” Gandhi, who was nominated by 18 Opposition parties, said.

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.