The contest is between Maharashtra Governor CP Radhakrishnan of the NDA bloc and former Supreme Court judge B Sudershan Reddy of the INDIA bloc.
Published Sep 09, 2025 | 10:07 AM ⚊ Updated Sep 09, 2025 | 11:41 AM
The new Parliament building. (Creative Commons)
Synopsis: The members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will decide the 15th Vice-President of India, two months after the sudden resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar. The contest is between Maharashtra Governor CP Radhakrishnan of the NDA bloc and former Supreme Court judge B Sudershan Reddy of the INDIA bloc.
The members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will decide on Tuesday, 9 September, the 15th Vice-President of India, two months after the sudden resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar.
The contest is between Maharashtra Governor CP Radhakrishnan of the NDA bloc and former Supreme Court judge B Sudershan Reddy of the INDIA bloc.
Voting began at 10 am inside the Parliament, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi cast the first ballot. Polling will run until 5 pm, and counting will start an hour later.
The electoral college consists of 239 members of the Rajya Sabha and 542 elected members of the Lok Sabha, comprising 781 members from both houses.
Three parties — the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) of Odisha, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) of Punjab, and the BRS of Telangana — have declared their intent to abstain from the polls. Their declaration, though, makes little difference to the poll arithmetic.
Unlike the Presidential election (where the value of votes cast by the Members of Parliament and the various State Legislative Assemblies are different, the value of every vote cast in the Vice-Presidential election has the same value — one.
Every elector can mark as many preferences if more than one candidates contests the election. These preferences for the candidates are to be
marked by the elector, by placing the figures 1,2,3,4, 5 and so on, against the names of the candidates, in the order of preference.
To win the election, the candidate has to secure one vote more than 50 percent of the valid votes.
“If the total value of the votes credited to any candidate at the first count, is equal to, or greater than the quota sufficient to secure the return of a candidate, he is declared elected by the Returning Officer. If, however, after the first round of counting, no candidate secures the requisite quota, then the counting proceeds on the basis of a process of elimination and exclusion, whereby the candidate credited with the lowest number of votes is excluded and all his ballot papers are distributed among the remaining (continuing) candidates on the basis of the second preferences marked thereon. The ballot papers on which second preference is not marked is treated as exhausted ballot papers and shall not be further counted, even if the third or subsequent preferences are marked thereon,” the Election Commission said.
“If no candidate secures the requisite quota, then the process of counting will continue on the same basis of elimination and exclusion, till a candidate secures the required quota of votes. In case, even after the exclusion of the candidates receiving the lowest number of votes, no candidates secures the requisite quota and ultimately one candidate remains as the lone continuing candidate, he is declared elected even if he has failed to secure the quota sufficient to secure the return of a candidate,” it added.
The BRS in Telangana decided to abstain from voting in the election. BRS Rajya Sabha MP and party floor leader KR Suresh Reddy stated that the party weighed all options and made a conscious decision to abstain.
He cited reasons related to the ongoing farmers’ crisis in Telangana, including a severe shortage of urea fertiliser, as a compelling reason. He said that the BRS leadership, under former chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), has been insisting on addressing these issues, but neither the BJP-led Union government nor the state Congress government responded adequately.
BRS Working President KT Rama Rao (KTR) had already said that his party chose abstention to focus attention on the neglect of Telangana farmers. In August 2025, KTR had said his party would support the party which resolved the urea supply issue first.
The BRS has four Rajya Sabha members and its abstention means these votes will not go to either candidate, potentially benefiting the NDA, which has a numerical edge in the electoral college.
Meanwhile, the YSRCP in Andhra Pradesh, which has four Lok Sabha members and seven Rajya Sabha members, said it would support the NDA pick.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
