New Delhi: Voting for the 15th Vice President of India took place in the new Parliament House from 10 am to 5 pm. Prime Minister Narendra Modi cast the first vote. This election was held after the sudden resignation of former Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on July 21 due to health reasons. In this election, National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate and Maharashtra Governor C.P. Radhakrishnan is pitted against opposition India Alliance candidate and former Supreme Court judge B. Sudarshan Reddy.
If seen, NDA wants to show the unity of the alliance with its allies on the pretext of this Vice Presidential election and this is the reason why BJP has made the agents of this election not only its own party but also the ministers of the alliance party, including Union Minister Kiren Rijiju along with Ram Mohan Naidu and Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde. On this issue, BJP claims that all the parties of NDA are united and this unity will be seen not only in the state elections but also in the 2029 Lok Sabha elections.
Talking to ETV Bharat on this issue, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Naresh Bansal said that PM Modi always believes in taking along the leaders of all parties and the same thing was seen in the Vice Presidential election as well. He said that if the Vice President’s election had been unanimous, it would have been a better thing and a good message would have been sent to the country, but the India Alliance fielded its candidate despite knowing that the numbers are not with them.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has once again questioned the silence of former Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar and asked why Dhankhar did not say anything till date on his resignation. On this, the BJP MP says that did Jairam Ramesh or any big leader of Congress go to inquire about his health, did the opposition leaders go to meet him. Did they worry at all.
The NDA, which is led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, has shown strong unity in the Vice Presidential election. Prominent leaders of the alliance, including Union Ministers Kiren Rijiju, Ram Mohan Naidu and Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde, have been appointed as election agents for Radhakrishnan. The alliance is confident of its numerical strength as it has the support of 425 MPs in the 781-member electoral college, far more than the majority figure of 391. The YSR Congress Party has further strengthened the NDA’s position by pledging the support of its 11 MPs, while the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) have announced to stay away from voting.
