Confident that Radhakrishnan will be an outstanding vice president: PM Modi
NEW DELHI, Sep 9 : NDA candidate C P Radhakrishnan won the vice presidential election on Tuesday by bagging 452 votes, while opposition candidate B Sudershan Reddy polled 300 votes, Returning Officer P C Mody said.
The vote tally suggested some cross-voting in favour of Radhakrishnan. BJP leaders claimed that at least 15 opposition members voted for the NDA nominee. Earlier, the Congress had claimed that the opposition stood united with all of its 315 MPs turning up to vote in the vice presidential polls.
A total of 767 MPs cast their ballot in a turnout of 98.2 per cent, of which 752 were valid and 15 votes were deemed invalid, Mody said. One postal ballot was cancelled as the MP declined to cast the vote.
Mody said Radhakrishnan secured 452 first preference votes as against 300 for Reddy.
“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.Radhakrishnan would be India’s 15th vice president when he is sworn in to the post.The poll was necessitated by the sudden resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar on July 21.
The electoral college for the vice presidential election comprises a total of 788 members – 245 from the Rajya Sabha and 543 from the Lok Sabha. The 12 nominated members of the Rajya Sabha are also eligible to vote in the election.
The present strength of the electoral college is 781 as six seats are vacant in the Rajya Sabha and one in the Lok Sabha. Counting of votes in the vice presidential election began at 6 PM on Tuesday after over 98 per cent of MPs exercised their franchise in the contest between NDA nominee C P Radhakrishnan and joint opposition candidate B Sudershan Reddy.
The counting was underway in the new Parliament building under the supervision of Returning Officer P C Mody, Rajya Sabha Secretary General. The polling concluded at 5 PM with over 98 per cent of votes being cast in the election, official sources said, adding 12 MPs out of 781 did not vote.
Brisk voting was witnessed earlier in the day, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi being the first to cast his ballot.
Modi, accompanied by Union Ministers Kiren Rijiju, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Jitendra Singh and L Murugan, cast his vote in the polling booth in Room No. 101 Vasudha in the Parliament building.Members of both Houses of Parliament are eligible to cast their votes in the Parliament House.MPs in large numbers queued up in the new Parliament building since morning. (PTI)