Vice-Presidential Election 2017: The Voting Begins

M Venkaiah Naidu, former union minister, will take on Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the candidate put forward by the Opposition, for the post of vice-president of the country.

Members of Parliament began casting their vote, to pick the fiftieth vice-president of India. The voting started at 10 a.m. and will continue till 5 p.m. The results will be announced by 7 p.m.

According to a PTI report, the BJD and the JD(U) which had supported NDA's presidential nominee Ramnath Kovind, have decided to back Opposition nominee Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi.

Though the JD(U) has broken ties with 'mahagathbandhan' (or grand alliance) and joined hands with the BJP to form a new government in Bihar, it has decided to vote for Gandhi, a former governor of West Bengal, the report said.

The electoral college that elects the vice-president, who is also the ex-officio chairman of the Rajya Sabha, consists of elected and nominated members of the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha.

The total strength of the two Houses is 790, but there are two vacancies in the Lok Sabha and one in the Upper House. The candidate who bags more than 50 percent of the total valid votes cast will win the poll.

BJP Lok Sabha member Chhedi Paswan is barred from casting his vote following a judicial pronouncement. In the 545-member House, the BJP has 281 members. The NDA, led by BJP, has 338 members.

In the 243-member Rajya Sabha, the BJP has 56 members, while the Congress, with 59, is the single-largest party. With its wins in the recent Assembly polls, the BJP is set to emerge as the single-largest party next year, taking NDA's tally to close to 100.

With inputs from PTI