PM Modi Casts 1st Vote As Polling Begins For New Vice President

1. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the first one to cast a vote as polling began at 10 am. The voting will continue till 5 pm, and the counting will begin post 6 pm. The election process is fairly straightforward. All MPs, elected or nominated, can vote. They do so in a secret ballot, meaning each can vote as they wish and not along party lines.
2. In practice, however, cross-voting is common. In 2022, for example, several opposition MPs voted for Jagdeep Dhankhar, the BJP’s pick. Then the BJP benefited from a large number of its own MPs, over 300 in the Lok Sabha alone, in the fray. This time, the party-led NDA has 427 in both Houses. That should still be enough given confirmed support from the YSR Congress and a 386-vote majority mark after the BRS, BJD’s abstention.
3. However, the narrower margins – in 2022, Mr Dhankhar won by 346 votes – mean the BJP is taking no chances. ‘Man to man marking’ is what sources have told NDTV. BJP MPs have been divided into groups that will gather in the morning and stay together for the rest of the day, to minimise disruptions and/or attempted poaching by the opposition.
4. BJP MPs from the southern states will be shepherded by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi and those from Uttar Pradesh will be ‘guarded’ by Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, while Agriculture Minister Shivraj Chouhan, Housing Minister ML Khattar, Law Minister Arjun Meghwal, and five others have been assigned ‘guard’ duties.
5. The opposition, i.e., the Congress-led INDIA bloc, has only 315 votes, not including 12 Aam Aadmi Party MPs who may back Justice Reddy. However, even within that 12, there may be discord; AAP Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal may not toe the party line, given last year’s clash with Arvind Kejriwal over alleged assault by his aide, Bibhav Kumar.
6. However, even if Ms Maliwal votes on party lines, as do all other non-BJP MPs, including those within the INDIA bloc, Mr Radhakrishnan will still get enough votes to win.
7. This election was necessitated by the sudden resignation of Mr Dhankhar, who quit citing ill health on a turbulent first day of Parliament’s Monsoon session. Sources told NDTV Mr Dhankhar ran afoul of the government after accepting an opposition-sponsored motion to impeach Delhi High Court judge Justice Yashwant Verma in the cash-at-home row.
8. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance picked Mr Radhakrishnan, a selection seen as a nod to the election in Tamil Nadu, his home state, next year. The opposition was expected to respond with a Tamil face of its own – possibly Tiruchi Silva, an MP of Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK – but settled on retired top court judge Justice Reddy.
9. The INDIA bloc has admitted that it does not expect to win this election. Sources said forcing a poll was largely an optics game – to underline the relative strength of the opposition vis-a-vis the last vice-presidential election and, hopefully, gather momentum ahead of a critical run of elections this year and next, in Bihar, Bengal and Tamil Nadu.
10. Meanwhile, Justice Reddy’s selection has been fiercely criticised by the BJP. Home Minister Amit Shah kickstarted that charge when he pointed to the judge’s 2011 judgement in the ‘Salwa Judum’ case, in which he ruled against state-sponsored militia in Chhattisgarh. Mr Shah said the judgement showed Justice Reddy “helped Naxalism”.

With input from agencies

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