Vice President election: Venkaiah Naidu wins, gets 516 votes

The term of the present incumbent Hamid Ansari, who has held the post for two consecutive terms, is coming to an end on 10 August.

The Vice President election is being held today. The results of the same will be out by 7 pm on Saturday. The polls are being fought between the NDA's Venkaiah Naidu and UPA's Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

Members of Parliament will use special pens for marking their choice in the election to be held between 10am and 5pm today. The counting of votes will commence after polling and the results will be declared by 7pm, Election Commission officials said quoting precedents. No whip can be issued by political parties as the election is through a secret ballot.

Catch all the live updates here:

7:00 pm: Out of 760 valid votes, Venkaiah Naidu got 516 votes and UPA's candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi got 244 votes

6:55 pm: Venkaiah Naidu - 117 votes; Gopal Gandhi - 25 votes

6:30 pm: 14 MPs did not cast their vote, out of which two are from BJP, four from TMC, two from the Congress, one each are from NCP and PMK, two from IUML and two are independent

6:27 pm: Congress party's Mausam Noor and Ranee Narah did not cast their votes, while Udayan Raje Bhonsle from NCP also did not vote. Ambumani Ramadoss from PMK also did not vote.

6:25 pm: BJP's Vijay Goel and Sanwar Lal Jat did not cast votes while TMC's Kunal Ghosh, Tapas Paul, Pratima Mondal and Abhishek Banerjee refrained from voting.

6:00 pm: Counting begins

5:15 pm: Counting to begin at 6 pm

5:10 pm: 98.21 per cent voting recorded, a total of 771 out of 785 votes polled.

5:00 pm: Voting ends

3:10 pm: 761 out of 785 votes polled till 3 pm which is over 95 %

1:50 pm: 90.83 per cent voting till 1 pm in vice presidential elections, says Assistant Returning Officer Mukul Pandey.

1:40 pm: 713 votes polled till now

1:20 pm: Everybody loves him (Venkaiah Naidu) a lot, he is most capable, he knows entire Parliament, says BJP MP Hema Malini

1:15 pm: Not only here but whenever voting takes place, every citizen should vote, says Tendulkar

12:50 pm: Sachin Tendulkar reaches Parliament to vote.

12:10 pm: Former prime minister Manmohan Singh of the Congress party and ex-deputy PM Lal Krishna Advani, a BJP veteran leader, arrive at Parliament too.

12:00: Congress party president Sonia Gandhi casts her vote at Parliament.

11:50 am: Congress' Rahul Gandhi and party MPs Jyotiraditya Scindia, Deepender Singh Hooda, Sushmita Dev cast their votes to elect the next Vice President.

11:10 am: The Prime Minister also stood in a queue before the voting hall was opened at 10am, reported PTI. There are three queues for voting at Parliament -- one each for Lok Sabha MPs, Rajya Sabha MPs and women MPs.

11:00 am: Rajya Sabha member and boxer Mary Kom, Union minister Prakash Javadekar and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh were seen standing in the queue to cast their votes.

10: 50: am: I think we will miss him (VenkaiahNaidu) in one place, but you will see more in action in another place, says Parrikar.

I think we will miss him (#VenkaiahNaidu) in one place, but you will see more in action in another place: Goa CM & RS MP #ManoharParrikar. pic.twitter.com/MFOC3hHHqd

— ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

10:45 am: PM Modi leaves after casting his vote

10:30 am: Prime Minister Narendra Modi casts his vote.

10:25 am: Can't call it one-sided as there were 2 candidates, Meiraji got a lot of votes but only one emerges as winner, says Gandhi.

10: 13 am: It is a fight based on constitutional principles, where I maintained complete civility and same has been done from other side too, says Gandhi

10:12 am: NDA's candidate is an experienced person. No competition as such between us, says UPA's VP candidate, Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

10.10 am: Venkaiah Naidu reaches Parliament to cast vote

10:00 am: Voting begins in VP polls.

9.46 am: I have written a polite letter to everybody. The response is very good. Confident that they will all support me, says Naidu.

9.44 am: I am known to all members of Parliament and they are known to me. That is why i am not even campaigning, says Naidu.

9.43 am: I am not contesting against anybody, individual or party. I am contesting for the Vice President of India says Naidu.

9.40 am: I am a non-party man. Majority of parties in India are supporting me. I am confident they will all vote in the election, says Naidu.

9.35 am: Venkaiah Naidu en route Parliament to cast his vote. Voting yet to take place he says

9.30 am: Voting will begin at 10 am and will end at 5 pm. The results will be declared by 7 pm today

While his name was doing the rounds as a NDA candidate for the post of the Vice-President, Venkaiah Naidu, known for his characteristic one-liners, had given an interesting answer to silence the media.

He had said, "I neither want to become Rashtrapati (president), nor do I want to become uprashtrapati (vice president). I am happy being Usha's pati (Usha's husband)."

There were rumours that Prime Minister Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah named Naidu for the top post as they feared that he would be a contender for the PM's post in 2019. Naidu, however, rubbished such reports, calling it a "trash". Naidu had said that Modi was "God's boon to the country".

PM Modi, on Friday, also released a book of speeches and articles by Naidu.

Released the book 'Tireless Voice Relentless Journey', which consists of speeches & articles by @MVenkaiahNaidu Garu https://t.co/uKKJqjl1u0 pic.twitter.com/SET7ULrGe1

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 4, 2017

The term of the present incumbent Hamid Ansari, who has held the post for two consecutive terms, is coming to an end on 10 August. The electoral college which elects the vice president, who is also the ex-officio chairman of the Rajya Sabha, consists of elected and nominated members of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha.

The total strength of the two Houses is 790, but there are two vacancies in the Lok Sabha and one in the Rajya Sabha. BJP MP in Lok Sabha Chhedi Paswan is barred from casting vote following a judicial pronouncement.

In the 545-member Lok Sabha, the BJP has 281 members. The NDA led by BJP, has 338 members.

In the 243-member Rajya Sabha, the BJP as of now has 56 members, while the Congress with 59 is the single largest party.

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