By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, Aug 06:
With numbers stacked heavily in his favour and the divided Opposition, NDA’s Jagdeep Dhankhar (71), pitted against UPA’s Margaret Alva (80) (Congress) is certain to win the Vice-Presidential poll 2022 scheduled to be held on Saturday.
The polling will be held from 10 am to 5 pm in Parliament House and the ballots will be counted immediately after that. The returning officer will announce the name of the next vice-president by late Saturday evening.
Since all the electors are members of both Houses of Parliament, the value of the vote of each MP would be the same – one. Unlike the presidential poll where voting takes place in multiple locations as elected MLAs, (not nominated), also form part of the electoral college, in the vice presidential election, voting will take place only in Parliament House.
The next Vice-President will take the oath of office on August 11 – a day after the term of the incumbent Vice President P M Venkaiah Naidu ends.
The Vice President will be elected by the Electoral College comprising 233 elected members of Rajya Sabha, 12 nominated members of Rajya Sabha, and 543 elected members of Lok Sabha, adding up to 788 members. In the system of proportional representation using the single transferable vote, the elector has to mark preferences against the names of the candidates. There are currently eight vacancies in the Rajya Sabha. Shiv Sena’s Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut is in the custody of the Enforcement Directorate.
The BJP alone has 394 votes, in the electoral college. With allies and supporting parties, the NDA has over 515 votes. Whereas the Opposition has nearly 200 votes. The Presidential poll had seen cross-voting from 17 MPs, mostly in favour of Murmu. It is to be seen whether the Opposition will be hit again by cross-voting
The Trinamool Congress (TMC), the second largest Opposition party after the Congress in Parliament ( 23 MPs in Lok Sabha and 16 in Rajya Sabha) has decided to abstain from the voting.
The Janata Dal (United), AIADMK, Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), and N. Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP) have decided to back Dhankhar. Similarly, the YSRCP and BJD, with a combined tally of 52 votes, have decided to back him. These two parties had backed the NDA nominee in the Presidential election as well. 12 Lok Sabha members from the Eknath Shinde faction of Shiv Sena will vote in favour of Dhankhar.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Telangana Rashtra Samithi(TRS), The All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MiM) and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) have announced their support to Alva. The Shiv Sena’s remaining 7 Lok Sabha members and 02 Rajya Sabha members are also supporting her.
The JMM, ruling Jharkhand in alliance with the Congress, had supported the NDA’s candidate, Droupadi Murmu, in the Presidential election, who became the first tribal to become the President of India.
Jagdeep Dhankhar
Jagdeep Dhankhar, a lawyer, politician, and the former Governor of West Bengal had frequent run-ins with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. After he was appointed the Governor in July 2019 he called out the TMC government multiple times over its policies. In turn, Banerjee wrote to Delhi many times demanding his recall.
Born in a farmer’s family in Kithana village in Rajasthan, Dhankhar was an advocate in the Rajasthan High Court and the Supreme Court. After joining politics in 1990 he was part of the Congress when PV Narasimha Rao became the Prime Minister. He shifted to the BJP with the rise of Ashok Gehlot. The selection of the Jat Rajasthan leader is also expected to help the BJP in the next year’s Assembly election in the Congress-ruled state.
Margaret Alva
Margaret Alva was born on April 14, 1942, in Mangalore in Karnataka. Like Dhankhar, she too practiced law before her foray into active politics. She was elected to Rajya Sabha in 1974 as a representative of Congress. A five-term Member of Parliament, Alva has held the Parliamentary Affairs and Youth Affairs portfolios in the Central cabinet.
She has served as the 17th Governor of Goa, the 23rd Governor of Gujarat, the 20th Governor of Rajasthan, and the fourth Governor of Uttarakhand.
By all means, the election will be symbolic offering an almost a walkover to Dhankhar.
