Dhankar Vs Alva For Vice Presidential Poll, Voting To Begin At 10 AM Today | 10 Points

Polling will begin at 10 am at Sansad Bhawan tomorrow and conclude at 5 pm. Counting of votes will start at 6 pm and results would be announced by 7:30 pm.

Jagdeep Dhankar (L), Margarate Alva (R) [File Photos/PTI]

Members of both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha will vote to elect the next Vice President of India on Saturday. In the election, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bharatiya Janata Party pitted former West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar against Opposition pick Margaret Alva. Polling will begin at 10 am at Sansad Bhawan and conclude at 5 pm. Counting of votes will start at 6 pm and results would be announced by 7:30 pm.

As far as numbers are concerned, Dhankar is set for an easy win in the Vice Presidential election. The 80-year-old Alva is a senior Congress and has served as Governor of Rajasthan and Uttarakhand, while the 71-year-old Dhankhar is a Jat leader from Rajasthan with socialist background.

Here's All You Need To Know About Vice Presidential Elections:

1. While polling will be held from 10 am to 5 pm on Saturday, the ballots will be counted immediately after that. By late Saturday evening, the returning officer will announce the name of the next Vice President of India. 

2. With numbers stacked in favour of the NDA nominee, Dhankar is expected to get 515 votes with support of some regional parties like the Janta Dal (United), YSRCP, BSP, AIADMK, and Shiv Sena, making it a one-sided contest. 

3. Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Wednesday announced her party's support for NDA's vice presidential nominee. Keeping in mind the larger public interest and the party movement, the Bahujan Samaj Party has decided to support Jagdeep Dhankhar in the vice presidential poll, Mayawati said.

4. Meanwhile, Alva is likely to get around 200 votes with backing of regional party Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), Aam Aadmi Party, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and AIMIM. 

5. The Trinamool Congress, which has 23 MPs in Lok Sabha and 16 in Rajya Sabha, has decided to stay away from the vice presidential election alleging lack of consultations while deciding on the name of Alva.

6. "If Parliament is to function effectively, MPs, independent of their parties, must find ways to rebuild trust and restore broken communication amongst each other. In the end, it is the MPs who determine the character of our Parliament," Alva said in a fresh video message ahead of the election.

7. Meanwhile, Dhankhar met a number of BJP MPs at his residence earlier in the day, including Sushil Kumar Modi, Gautam Gambhir, Rajyavardhan Rathore, Rajendra Agrawal, Pradeep Choudhary and Kartikeya Sharma, among others. He has been meeting party MPs while seeking their support for the poll.

8. Members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, including nominated members, are eligible to vote in the vice presidential poll. The electoral college in the vice presidential election comprises a total of 788 members of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. As all the electors are members of both Houses of Parliament, the value of vote of each MP would be the same i.e. 1.

9. The vice presidential election is held in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of a single transferable vote and the voting at such election is done by secret ballot. It also to be noted that no political party can issue whip to its MPs in the matter of voting.

10. Though voting for Presidential election takes place at multiple locations as elected MLAs, not nominated, also form part of the electoral college, in the Vice Presidential election, voting takes place in only at one place - Parliament House. The term of incumbent Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu ends on August 10. The Vice President of India is also the Chairperson of Rajya Sabha.

(With inputs from PTI.)