NDA to Sail Smoothly in Vice-President Election
While the Deputy Chairperson can take over the role of the chairing the proceedings of the Rajya Sabha, he or she will not be designated as the Vice-President, which is the most important position in the country going by the order of precedence.
Hyderabad: With the resignation of Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Monday, the Election Commission is likely to initiate the process to elect a new Vice-President soon as per the provisions of the Constitution.
According to Article 68 (2) of the Constitution, “An election to fill a vacancy in the office of Vice-President occurring by reason of his death, resignation or removal, or otherwise shall be held as soon as possible after the occurrence of the vacancy, and the person elected to fill the vacancy shall, subject to the provisions of Article 67, be entitled to hold office for the full term of five years from the date on which he enters upon his office.”
While the Deputy Chairperson can take over the role of the chairing the proceedings of the Rajya Sabha, he or she will not be designated as the Vice-President, which is the most important position in the country going by the order of precedence.
The Vice-President will be elected by an electoral college, consisting of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members, and the election will be conducted on the basis of the single transferable preferential voting system.
Going by the numbers in both the Houses, the ruling BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is placed comfortably to win the Vice-President election. The total combined strength of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha is 788. After deducting one vacancy in the Lok Sabha and six vacancies in the Rajya Sabha, the current strength stands at 782.
As a candidate requires 50 per cent plus one vote to win the election, the magic number for the current Vice-President election stands at 392.
The ruling NDA has a combined strength of 426 members — 293 in the Lok Sabha and 133 in the Rajya Sabha — making it win the election comfortably.
The Opposition I.N.D.I.A. bloc has 312 members — 234 in the Lok Sabha and 78 in the Rajya Sabha. The other non-NDA and non-I.N.D.I.A. block has 44 members, 15 coming from the Lok Sabha and 29 from the Rajya Sabha.