Jagdeep Dhankhar shock exit: NDA maintains comfortable edge in vice president elections

The ruling NDA has a comfortable edge in the elections for the post of Vice President, brought on by the surprise resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar on Monday.

The vice president is elected by the members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Nominated members of the Upper House are also eligible to cast their vote.

The 543-member Lok Sabha has one vacant seat—Basirhat in West Bengal—while there are five vacancies in the 245-member Rajya Sabha.

Of the five vacancies in the Rajya Sabha, four are from Jammu and Kashmir and one is from Punjab, where sitting member Sanjeev Arora quit the seat after being elected to the state assembly in a bypoll last month.

The combined strength of both the Houses is 786, and the winning candidate will need to win 394 votes in the election for a vice president, considering all eligible voters exercise their franchise.

In the Lok Sabha, the BJP-led NDA enjoys the support of 293 members, whereas it has the support of 129 members in the Rajya Sabha (assuming that the nominated members vote in support of the NDA nominee). This brings its total support to 422 members out of 786.

According to Clause 2 of Article 68 of the Constitution, an election to fill a vacancy in the office of the vice president—occurring due to his death, resignation, removal, or otherwise—will be held "as soon as possible" after it goes vacant.

The person elected to fill the vacancy will be entitled to hold office "for the full term of five years from the date on which he enters upon his office".

Article 66 (1) of the Constitution states that elections shall be held in accordance with the system of Proportional Representation by means of the single transferable vote, with the voting at such an election to take place by the secret ballot method.

In this system, the elector has to mark preferences against the names of the candidates.

The vice president is the second highest constitutional office in the country. He serves for a five-year term, but can continue to be in office—irrespective of the expiry of the term—until the successor assumes office.

Dhankhar resigned as the Vice President on Monday evening, citing medical reasons. He sent his resignation to President Droupadi Murmu and said he was stepping down with immediate effect.

India