The new Vice President will move in to the Vice President House on Maulana Azad Road.
As the term of present Vice President Hamid Ansari, who has held the post for two consecutive terms, comes to an end on August 10, voting for his successor will take place tomorrow at the Parliament House. The battle will be fought between NDA's pick, former union minister M Venkiah Naidu, and the Opposition's nominee, former West Bengal governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi. The result will be announced the same day by 7pm.
Here are 10 things about how the next Vice President will be elected:
The ruling NDA, which has a majority in the Lok Sabha, will find it easy to place its candidate as the next Vice President. Though the JD(U) has broken ties with the Mahagathbandhan and joined hands with the BJP to form a new government in Bihar, it has decided to vote for Mr Gandhi.
Unlike the Presidential poll where elected members of all state legislative assemblies, including Delhi and Puducherry, participate in the voting, the election for the Vice President is conducted through a secret ballot where only members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha get to vote.
The total strength of the two Houses is 790, but there are two vacancies in the Lok Sabha and one in the Rajya Sabha. BJP MP in Lok Sabha Chhedi Paswan has been barred from casting vote following a judicial pronouncement.
In the 545-member Lok Sabha, the BJP has 281 members. The NDA led by BJP, has 338 members. In the Rajya Sabha, there are 243 members and the BJP as of now has 56 members, while the Congress with 59 is the single largest party.
With its recent wins in the recent assembly polls, the BJP is set to emerge as the single largest party in the Rajya Sabha too next year and the NDA's tally would be close to 100. It would, however, still be short of a majority in the upper house. The candidate who bags 50 per cent plus one vote of the total valid votes cast will win the poll.
The value of each vote in the Vice-Presidential election is one. The ballot paper used for the election will have the names of the contesting candidates. It has two columns - one containing the name of the candidate and the second for marking the order of preference.
Members of Parliament will use special pens to mark their choice. Votes marked with any other pen are liable to be rejected.
In case of the President's demise or impeachment or resignation, the vice president becomes the acting President and stays on the post for a maximum period of six months and performs all the functions of the President.
The Vice President is elected for a period of five years. There is no fixed retirement age and he or she can be re-elected as the Vice President for any number of times.
The new Vice President will move in to the Vice President House, the official residence on Maulana Azad Road, New Delhi.
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