Who will be the next Vice President of India?

By: Deepak Maggu

After the resignation of Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, from the Union Cabinet, there is a lot of talk that he can be made the candidate for the Vice President’s post.

After the resignation of Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, from the Union Cabinet, there is a lot of talk that he can be made the candidate for the Vice President’s post. Rumors are spreading in the air rapidly about his nomination. The tenure of current Vice President M.Venkaiah Naidu will end on August 10. As per Article 68 of the Indian Constitution, an election to fill the vacancy is required to be completed before the expiry of the term.

Let's take a look at the Constitution regarding the Office of Vice President.

*Constitution of India

Since independence, India has seen the tenure of 13 Vice Presidents. The first three Vice Presidents were elected as independent candidates. Interestingly, all three became Presidents of India following their tenure as Vice Presidents. By the way, a total of 6 Vice-Presidents have become the President after the tenure.

Source: ECI

If we talk about the upcoming Vice Presidential election, no party has declared candidates yet. But if we look at the figures, the victory of the NDA candidate can be considered certain. The electoral college of the Vice Presidential election is different from the Presidential election in that the vote value is not fixed according to the population of the state, but everyone has the same vote value.

In the election of the Vice-President, the members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha (nominated also included) form the Electoral College, who have to vote for each candidate according to their preference. To win, the candidate must get 50% of the vote value. It requires 391 votes to win from the Electoral College; which has a total of 780 members. Right now the BJP can win on its own because it has 303 Lok Sabha seats and 91 Rajya Sabha seats i.e. 394 which is 3 more than the required number. If BJP's allies are also included in this, then the total votes will be 446. The allies have 31 MPs in the Lok Sabha and 16 in the Rajya Sabha. These include parties like JDU, RPI, and AIDMK, etc.

So if we see it this way, the NDA already has a majority in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Apart from this, non-BJP and non-Congress parties like BSP, BJD, and YSR can also support the NDA candidate.

Source: ECI