V-P Poll On Sept. 9

New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has fixed September 9 as the date for election of the 17th Vice President of India. The polling for the election, if required, will take place in the Parliament House between 10 am to 5 pm with counting and declaration of result on the same day.

The last date for filing nominations is August 21 and scrutiny of papers will be held the next day. Withdrawal of candidature will be from August 23 to 25. The Office of the Vice-President of India fell vacant on July 22 following the resignation of Mr Jagdeep Dhankar. The Ministry of Home Affairs notified the vacancy on July 22.

The Vice-President is elected by the members of the Electoral College consisting of the members of both Houses of Parliament in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. The electoral college for the Vice Presidential election comprises 233 elected members of the Rajya Sabha, 12 nominated members of the Rajya Sabha and 543 members of the Lok Sabha. There are five vacancies in the Rajya Sabha and one in the Lok Sabha, pegging the effective strength of the electoral college at 782. The ruling NDA has a comfortable edge in the ensuing poll.

The 543-member Lok Sabha has one vacant seat -- Basirhat in West Bengal -- while there are five vacancies in the 245-member Rajya Sabha. Of the five vacancies in the Rajya Sabha, four are from Jammu and Kashmir, and one from Punjab. The seat from Punjab was vacated after AAP leader Sanjeev Arora quit following his election to the state assembly in a bypoll last month. The effective strength of both the Houses together is 782 and the winning candidate will require 391 votes, considering that all eligible voters exercise their franchise.

In the Lok Sabha, the BJP-led NDA enjoys the support of 293 of the 542 members. The ruling alliance has the support of 129 members in the Rajya Sabha (effective strength 240), assuming that the nominated members vote in support of the NDA nominee. The ruling alliance has the support of 422 members.

The voting is by secret ballot. In this system, the elector has to mark preferences against the names of the candidates. Preference can be marked in the international form of Indian numerals, in Roman form, or in the form in any recognised Indian languages. Preference has to be marked in figures only and shall not be indicated in words. The elector can mark as many preferences as the number of candidates. While the marking of the first preference is compulsory for the ballot paper to be valid, other preferences are optional.

For marking the vote, the Commission will supply particular pens when the ballot paper is handed over. Voting by using any other pen shall lead to invalidation of the vote at the time of counting. Detailing the voting procedure, ECI said after marking the vote in the Voting Compartment, the elector is required to fold the ballot paper and insert it in the Ballot Box. Any violation of the voting procedure will entail cancellation of the ballot paper by the Presiding Officer. Marking of vote can be done only with the particular pen provided by the Presiding Officer to the electors at the place of polling.

A nomination paper of a candidate has to be subscribed by at least twenty electors as proposers and by at least other twenty electors as seconders. No elector shall subscribe more than one nomination paper at the same election, as either a proposer or a seconder. A candidate can file maximum of four nomination papers. The security deposit for the election is Rs.15,000 which is required to be made along with the nomination paper, or should be deposited in Reserve Bank of India or a Government Treasury prior to filing of nomination.

“The Constitution has expressly provided that election to the office of Vice-President shall be by secret ballot. Therefore, the electors are expected to scrupulously maintain secrecy of vote. There is no concept of open voting in this election and showing the ballot to anyone under any circumstances in the case of Presidential and Vice-Presidential elections is totally prohibited,” ECI said.

ECI also clarified that political parties cannot issue any whip to their MPs in the matter of voting in the Vice-Presidential election. “As per Section 18 of the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Act, 1952, the offence of ‘bribery’ or ‘undue influence’ as defined in Sections 170 and 171 of Bharatiya Nyay Samhita, by the returned candidate or any person with the consent of the returned candidate are among the grounds on which the election can be declared void by the Supreme Court in an election petition,” the poll body underlined.