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Vice President election 2022: It's Jagdeep Dhankhar vs Margaret Alva. All that has happened so far

For the post, Jagdeep Dhankhar (71), a Jat leader from Rajasthan and also former Governor of West Bengal is pitted against Margaret Alva (80), a Congress veteran and has served as Governor of Rajasthan. (Photo: HT)

How the VP is elected?

The Vice-President is elected by an electoral process in which all the members of Parliament---Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha participate in the contest and vote through a secret ballot.

The electoral college in the vice presidential election comprises a total of 788 members of both Houses of Parliament. Since all the electors are members of both Houses of Parliament, the value of vote of each MP would be the same -- one, the Election Commission has said earlier in the day

Where are the numbers stand?

The Electoral College consists of 780 MPs, i.e. 543 MPs in Lok Sabha and 245 MPs in Rajya Sabha. Of this, 744 MPs are expected to vote today to elect the new vice president. Currently, 8 seats are vacant in the Upper House and 36 TMC MPs have chosen to skip the voting. 

Who is likely to win the race?

So far, Jagdeep Dhankhar seems to be the favourite. Dhankhar is expected to win 527 votes, far higher than the required 372 votes, which is about 70% of the total votes. 

The NDA has 441 MPs, including 394 of the BJP. Apart from that, Naveen Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal, Jaganmohan Reddy's YSR Congress, Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party, Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party, Akali Dal and the Eknath Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena are also supporting him. 

Margaret Alva, however, received the backing of regional party Telangana Rashtra Samithi(TRS) on Friday, two days after Aam Aadmi Party and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) lent their support to the opposition candidate. The AIMIM has also extended its support to Alva.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Opposition leader Sonia Gandhi, Congress MP Manmohan Singh, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla were seen casting their vote at the Parliament House on Saturday.

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