Polling for 13th Vice Prez election begins

New Delhi, Aug 10: Polling for the 13th vice presidential election is underway. There is a triangular contest between the UPA-Left candidate Mohammad Hamid Ansari, the NDA candidate Najma Heptullah and the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) or the Third Front candidate, Rashid Masood.

The polling will conclude at 5 p.m. Counting will take place at 6 p.m. and the result will be declared immediately thereafter.

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Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat's term ends on August 18 and his successor will have to be in place before that date.

Ansari, a former diplomat and chairman of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM), is known for his role in ensuring compensation to victims of the Gujarat riots and pushing for a complete re-look into the relief and rehabilitation for riot victims since 1984.

Heptullah, on the other hand, was closely associated with the Congress party for over three decades, before joining the BJP ahead of the 2004 general elections.

The Vice-President is elected by the members of the Electoral College consisting of the members of both houses of Parliament in accordance with the system of proportional representation.

The voting is done by the means of the single transferable vote.

The Congress is confident that Ansari will win with a convincing majority and the NDA and the Third Front will once again show up cracks as they did during the presidential elections.

The winning candidate needs 392 votes.

The UPA-Left along with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has the support of 425 MPs while NDA has the backing of 240 MPs. The UNPA has 81 MPs.

The Trinamool Congress, which abstained from the presidential election, will participate in the poll but did not name the candidate, it will support.

The Janata Dal (Secular) will abstain from voting and will maintain equidistance from both Congress and the BJP. The party, who had maintained a similar stand during the presidential poll, said that the party also not supporting the Third Front candidate.

ANI>