NEW DELHI, SEP 9 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi cast the first vote as polling opened at 10 am for the high-stakes Vice Presidential election. Voting will continue until 5 pm, with counting scheduled to begin at 6 pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The NDA’s candidate, C P Radhakrishnan, is contesting against Justice (Retd) B Sudershan Reddy, the nominee of the Congress-led INDIA bloc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The contest comes after Jagdeep Dhankhar unexpectedly resigned as vice-president on July 21, citing health reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The total strength of the electoral college stands at 781 MPs, 542 from the Lok Sabha and 238 from the Rajya Sabha, with one Lok Sabha and six Rajya Sabha seats currently vacant. The majority mark is 391.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NDA has the backing of 425 MPs, including support from the YSR Congress Party (11 MPs), which is not formally part of the NDA. The Opposition (INDIA bloc) has the support of 324 MPs, BJD (7 MPs) and BRS (4 MPs) have decided to abstain from voting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SAD (1 MP) has announced a boycott of the election. Three of the seven independent MPs in the Lok Sabha have not disclosed their voting preference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RLP MP Hanuman Beniwal and Azad Samaj Party MP Chandrashekhar Azad met the INDIA bloc\u2019s candidate, fueling speculation that they may vote for the Opposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both the NDA and the Congress-led opposition held separate meetings with their respective MPs on poll eve to sensitise them about the election process and also held mock polls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As part of its meticulous election-day coordination, NDA MPs, including nominated members, began arriving early at the residences of their assigned group ministers, who have been appointed to ensure that all MPs vote correctly and no ballots are rendered invalid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The NDA has deployed six Union Ministers to oversee voting efforts, Kiren Rijiju \u2013 Northeas, Prahlad Joshi \u2013 Southern states, Piyush Goyal \u2013 Uttar Pradesh, Nityanand Rai \u2013 Bihar. Other ministers are supervising MPs from their respective regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To avoid any invalid votes, the NDA has conducted comprehensive training sessions for its MPs on how to correctly mark the ballot papers. The alliance is confident that not a single vote will be wasted. Arrangements have been made to ensure the counting process is completed swiftly, with results expected by 7 to 7:30 pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
-PTI<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NEW DELHI, SEP 9 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi cast the first vote as polling opened at 10 am for the high-stakes Vice Presidential election. Voting will continue until 5<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":141701,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[348],"tags":[63,27616,27617],"class_list":["post-141699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news","tag-new-delhi","tag-pm-modi-casts-first-vote-as-vice-president-polls-begin-radhakrishnan","tag-sudershan-reddy-vie-for-post"],"yoast_head":"\n