• Source:JND
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Vice President Election: India is set to get a new Vice President as the voting for the office is set to take place in the Parliament on Tuesday. The Veep will be elected by all the MPs of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, called the Electoral College, based on a secret ballot.

One of the features of the voting that makes it different from that of motions and bills is that parties can't issue whips in these elections, making room for cross-voting across party lines.

Despite this, no major shift is expected in tomorrow's voting, as NDA nominee CP Radhakrishnan is eyeing an easy win against the Opposition's pick, B Sudrershan Reddy win as the coalition has numbers.

How numbers stack up?

The total strength of the Rajya Sabha is 245, including 12 nominated members, and of the Lok Sabha is 543. This takes the total strength of the Parliament to 788.

Generally, this makes up the Electoral College, but for the 2025 VP elections, the strength of the Electoral College is 781, as 6 seats in the Rajya Sabha and 1 seat in the Lok Sabha are vacant.

To win the election, a candidate has to secure at least 391 votes. The BJP alone has 340 votes (MPs), but its coalition number is 425 votes (MPs), sufficient for Radhakrishnan's victory.

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Apart from the parties that are aligned with each of these alliances, there are parties like YSRCP, BJD, and BRS that are part of neither of them.

How Non-alignmed party's are playing?

Among them, YSRCP has sided with the BJP's Radhakrishnan. Rallying behind with 11 MPs, the NDA numbers have risen to 436. Naveen Patnaik's BJD, which suffered a crushing defeat in the Odisha Assembly elections last year, has decided to abstain from the voting. Last time, the party sided with the NDA's Jagdeep Dhankhar, who garnered 528 votes in 2022.

Like the BJD, the BRS can also abstain from voting as the Telangana-based party is suffering from internal rifts at the moment, with the ouster of K Chandrasekhar's daughter K Kavitha.

Apart from them, there are independent MPs, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and ZPM, which have yet not clarify on their stand. Besides, their choice of vote will only affect the margin of victory of the BJP candidate.

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As the stage is set, the NDA is sure of winning the election, but the opposition's Reddy is expecting a magical cross-voting to defeat Radhakrishnan.

Date and timing

The voting will take place in the Parliament on September 9. It will start at 10 AM and will continue till 5 PM for the members of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. The counting of the votes will start an hour later at 6.00 PM.