Vice-President Election 2022: Jagdeep Dhankhar defeats Margaret Alva by 346 votes

New Delhi, Aug 06: NDA candidate Jagdeep Dhankhar has been elected as the next Vice President of India. He defeated Opposition candidate Margaret Alva by 346 votes in the polls held on Saturday.

Announcing the poll result, Lok Sabha Secretary-General and Returning Officer Utpal Kumar Singh said 725 MPs cast their ballots and 15 votes were declared invalid. A candidate required at least 356 votes to win the election. The voter turnout of 92.94 per cent this time was lower than 98.2 per cent recorded in the 2017 election when Naidu was elected.

The polling to elect the new vice president began at 10 am today and concluded at 5 pm. The counting of votes began after 6 pm.

Dhankhar, a former governor of West Bengal, secured 528 votes against Alva's 182. His victory margin was the highest since 1997.

Wishes poured in from various quarters after the election result was announced with President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Alva congratulating Dhankhar.

The nation will benefit from Dhankhar's long and rich experience in public life, the president tweeted.

Dhankhar, 71, will take oath as the vice president on August 11, a day after incumbent M Venkaiah Naidu's tenure ends.

He will be the second vice president from Rajasthan after Bhairon Singh Shekhawat who held the office between 2002 and 2007. With Dhankhar's election, the presiding officers of both Houses of Parliament will be from Rajasthan.

The vice president is the chairperson of Rajya Sabha. Currently, Om Birla who was elected to Lok Sabha from Rajasthan's Kota is the Lok Sabha speaker.

The electoral college comprises 788 members, but due to eight vacancies in Rajya Sabha, the actual strength was 780. The Trinamool Congress had abstained from voting claiming it was not consulted while naming Alva as the opposition pick. However, two of its MPs -- Sisir Kumar Adhikari and Dibyendu Adhikari -- broke ranks and cast their ballots. The party has 36 MPs, including 23 in Lok Sabha.

A total of 55 MPs did not turn up to cast their votes, notable among them were BJP MPs Sunny Deol and Sanjay Dhotre, the Samajwadi Party's Mulayam Singh Yadav and Shafiqur Rahman Barq. Seven MPs from the Shiv Sena, including Sanjay Raut who is in jail in connection with a money laundering case, did not vote. Two MPs from the BSP and one from the AAP also did not vote.

Dhankhar, who had been associated with the Janata Dal and the Congress, joined the BJP only in 2008 after a hiatus of nearly a decade when he concentrated on his legal career. A man of many interests, Dhankhar's long legal career at the Rajasthan High Court and the Supreme Court and a brief stint as the junior parliamentary affairs minister at the Centre is expected to come in handy as he presides over Rajya Sabha.

He has championed issues related to Other Backward Classes, including the grant of OBC status to the Jat community in Rajasthan.