Polling goes on at brisk pace in Vice-Presidential polls

New Delhi, Aug 10 (UNI) Polling for the 13th Vice-Presidential election was going on at a brisk pace to decide the fate of UPA-Left candidate Hamid Ansari, NDA nominee Najma Heptulla and UNPA candidate Rashid Masood today with most of the members of the electoral college casting their votes in the first two hours of the voting.

About 672 MPs cast their ballots in the first two hours of the voting. Of the 784 members of the electoral college, four are presently abroad, including filmstar Dharmendra, so only 780 members are likely to exercise their franchise.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Home Minister Shivraj Patil, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, CPI(M) leader Basudeb Acharia and CPI(I) leaders Gurudas Dasgupta and D Raja were among the first to cast their votes within the ten minutes of the polling, which got underway at 1000 hrs.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi accompanied by Women and Child Welfare Minister Renuka Chaudhary, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Suresh Pachauri and Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma cast their vote by 1030 hrs.

Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, along with NDA nominee Najma Heptulla and BJP leader S S Ahluwalia, came around noon to vote.

Mr Vajpayee was the third MP who came on a wheelchair to cast his vote as Mr Ajit Jogi of the Congress and Pappu Yadav of the RJD also came before him on wheelchairs. Pappu Yadav came from Tihar Jail to vote in the poll. Mohammad Shahabuddin, who is at present in custody in a Patna jail, arrived in New Delhi to exercise his franchise.

BJP leaders L K Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Kalraj Mishra and NDA convenor George Fernandes also cast their votes in the second hour of polling.

A heavily-pregnant Congress MP Priya Dutt also came from Mumbai to cast her vote.

Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh and Jaya Prada, who had abstained in the Presidential election last month, came to cast their ballots in the poll.

Similarly, Trinamool Congress leader Mamta Banerjee wa also about to exercise her franchise in this tripartite poll, though she had abstained from the presidential poll.

Over 65 per cent of the voters belonging to both Houses of Parliament cast their votes within the first hour of the polling.

The voting will continue till 1700 hrs.

UNI