How is the Vice President of India elected

The value of each vote in the Vice-Presidential election is one.

The battle for the next President of India will be fought between Venkaiah Naidu and Gopalkrishna Gandhi. The BJP on Monday chose Naidu to take on Gandhi in the election to be held in the month of August.

On Monday the elections for the next President of India too was held. Ram Nath Kovind, the NDA's candidate appeared to be heading for a comfortable win over the UPA's Meira Kumar. Going by the numbers, Naidu too is perched in a comfortable situation and is likely to win the elections even though the JD(U) which had backed Kovind said it would not back him in the VP elections.

How is the Vice President of India elected?

The election process is similar to the one deployed in the presidential poll. The VP too is elected by the electoral college comprising members of the both houses of Parliament.

However the only difference is that in the VP election the members of the state legislature are not part of the electoral college.

According to the Election Commission, the Electoral College for this year's election consists of the following members:

• From Rajya Sabha: 233 elected and 12 nominated members
• From Lok Sabha, 543 elected and 2 nominated.
• The total members in the Electoral College are 790

Vote value:

The value of each vote in the Vice-Presidential election is one. Ballot paper, containing names of the contesting candidate, is used for the election. The ballot paper doesn't contain any party symbol. It has two columns - one containing the name of the candidate and the second for marking the order of preference.

The winning candidate has to get a required quota of votes, which is 50% of the total valid votes.

Eligibility:

• A VP candidate must be a citizen of India
• He or she should be above 35 years of age
• Should be qualified for election as member of Rajya Sabha
• No hold any office of profit under Government of India or the Government of any State or under any local government

Vice President election schedule:

Date of notification issued: July 4
Last date for filing nomination: July 18
Polling date: August 5
Counting: August 5

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