NEW DELHI, Sep 9: NDA candidate C P Radhakrishnan was elected the next vice president of India on Tuesday as he bagged 452 votes against the opposition candidate B Sudershan Reddy’s 300, winning the contest with a bigger than expected margin, indicating cross-voting from the rival camp.
Announcing the result of the vice presidential election this evening, Rajya Sabha Secretary General and Returning Officer P C Mody said 767 MPs cast their votes out of the total valid electors of 781 in a turnout of 98.2 per cent.
He said 752 ballots were valid and 15 were invalid, bringing down the required majority of first preference votes to 377.
Hours before the result, senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh had claimed that the Opposition has stood united.
“All of its 315 MPs have turned up for voting,” he said.
The final tally in favour of Reddy, a retired Supreme Court judge, was 300, decidedly less than expected by the opposition camp as some MPs unaligned to the two blocs had also announced their support to him.
BJP leaders were quick to claim that at least 15 opposition MPs voted in favour of Radhakrishnan. There were hints from the ruling alliance that some opposition MPs deliberately cast invalid votes.
“I declare C P Radhakrishnan elected to the post of Vice President of India and the results will be communicated to the Election Commission,” Mody said.
BJP MP Sanjay Jaiswal claimed that “nearly 40 opposition MPs” listened to the voice of their conscience and voted in “some manner” in support of the NDA candidate, showing a wider acceptance for him. His assertion of support from 40 opposition MPs appeared to include several invalid votes.
Some opposition leaders had appealed to MPs’ conscience in the polls to support Reddy, and the senior BJP leader’s comments were seen as a retort to them.
The BJP-led NDA had on paper 427 MPs in its alliance, with the YSR Congress also extending the support of its 11 MPs to its candidate.
Some MPs representing smaller parties also backed Radhakrishnan. (PTI)
