The Vice Presidential election will take place on Tuesday, with results expected to be announced by the end of the day. Two candidates are vying for the position: CP Radhakrishnan, representing the NDA, and B Sudarshan Reddy, a former Justice of the Supreme Court, representing the INDIA coalition. The outcome of the election hinges on the competition between these two candidates. It is essential to examine the electoral calculations before the election.
The Lok Sabha has 542 Members of Parliament (MPs), and the Rajya Sabha has 239 MPs. This means the total number of MPs eligible to vote is 781. To win, a candidate needs 391 votes. However, if the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) led by Naveen Patnaik and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) of former Telangana CM K. Chandrasekhar Rao are excluded, the total number of MPs who will vote is reduced to 770, as both parties have decided to abstain from the election.
Therefore, to win, a candidate needs 386 votes. The NDA has a total of 425 MPs. Furthermore, adding the support from Jagan Reddy’s party (11 MPs), the total number of MPs supporting NDA becomes 436. On the other hand, the INDIA bloc has 324 MPs, which means there is a difference of 112 votes between the two sides.
It is also important to note that the voting intentions of 10 independent MPs and those who have distanced themselves from their parties, such as Swati Maliwal and Girdhari Lal Yadav, are uncertain. Overall, based on the available data, the NDA candidate appears to be in a favorable position to win.
Shiromani Akali Dal’s Decision to Boycott
The Shiromani Akali Dal has announced that it will boycott the Vice Presidential election. In a written statement, the party stated that Punjab is currently facing severe floods and that neither the state government nor the central government has stood with the people of Punjab. Therefore, in consideration of the sentiments of the people of Punjab, the Shiromani Akali Dal believes that the focus should be on supporting the people of Punjab rather than participating in the election process.