With Venkaiah Naidu beating Gopal Krishna Gandhi in vice-presidential polls, BJP's ascendance is complete
Veteran member of the BJP and former Union minister of urban development, Venkaiah Naidu is the 15th vice-president of India and the 13th person to hold the post. He defeated the UPA V-P candidate Gopal Krishna Gandhi in the polls by parliamentarians conducted today and emerged victorious by a margin of 272 votes. The Electoral College saw a voting percentage of 98.21 in this round of vice-presidential polls. Naidu got 516 votes while Gandhi received 244.
Venkaiah Naidu elected as the Vice-President of India with 516 out of 771 votes https://t.co/Cq18N7q9nu pic.twitter.com/N8PFQdQJWf
— India Today (@IndiaToday) August 5, 2017
With Naidu as the newly-elected vice-president, the NDA, especially the BJP, now occupies all three premier constitutional posts in the country - the president, the vice-president and of course, the prime minister. Moreover, the BJP has majority in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, in addition to having governments in 18 states. This is the first time that the members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) have made it to all three of the top posts in India.
Congratulations are pouring in from all quarters, including from PM Modi and President Ram Nath Kovind.
Congratulations to @MVenkaiahNaidu Garu on being elected India’s Vice President. My best wishes for a fruitful & motivating tenure.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 5, 2017
देश के 13वें उप-राष्ट्रपति निर्वाचित होने पर श्री @MVenkaiahNaidu जी को हार्दिक शुभकामनाएं। pic.twitter.com/UJvXbaweyq
— BJP (@BJP4India) August 5, 2017
Naidu was anyway tipped to win the vice-presidential polls, and reports had predicted his victory much before the results were officially announced.
#VicePresidentialElection NDA's nominee @MVenkaiahNaidu likely to become next Vice President of India. Here's the report. #ITVideo pic.twitter.com/W6BugmT85J
— India Today (@IndiaToday) August 5, 2017
My humble request is to wait for the results till evening. My contest is not against any party: @MVenkaiahNaidu on #VicePresidentialElection pic.twitter.com/qKUmvf2nw3
— ABP News (@abpnewstv) August 5, 2017
Voting underway for #VicePresidentialElection in Parliament, PM Narendra Modi cast his vote. pic.twitter.com/EkndDuBQK0
— ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017
Electoral college
The Electoral College which elects the vice-president - who is also the ex-officio chairperson 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, though there are two vacancies in the Lok Sabha and some in the Rajya Sabha as well.
There were 14 MPs who didn’t/couldn’t vote in the vice-presidential polls, including two from BJP, two from Congress, two from Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), four from TMC, one from NCP, one from Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and two Independent. 11 votes were found to be invalid.
#VicePresidentialElection: #Voting underway; 96.94% polling till 3 PM; results to be declared by evening pic.twitter.com/DWcXZ4mCWd
— Doordarshan News (@DDNewsLive) August 5, 2017
JD(U) supported Gandhi
The Biju Janata Dal and the Janta Dal (United) which had supported NDA nominee Ram Nath Kovind for the post of president, backed the Opposition's Gopal Gandhi. The support of JD(U) is significant because this comes after the formal re-entry of Nitish Kumar into the NDA camp. Despite ditching the Grand Alliance and calling quits with Lalu Yadav's RJD, supporting Gandhi comes across as a mere face-saving exercise by the party.
Gandhi lost but...
Gopal Gandhi - respected academic, former diplomat and the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi - had been saying that this was a battle of principles and ideals, and even though the odds were stacked against him in the VP race. Gandhi was in fact supposed to be the UPA presidential candidate, but with the NDA fielding Ram Nath Kovind, former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar was fronted by them.
It is also significant that Gopal Gandhi is the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, who was assassinated by Nathuram Godse, an RSS member. That 69 years later the grandson would be facing off a member of the BJP, the party ideologically affiliated to the thrice-banned but now ascendant RSS, is a historical milestone and exercise in irony.
#IndiaTodayExclusiveThe Opposition has done all it could have for the #VicePresidentialElection: Gopalkrishna Gandhi to @PoojaShali pic.twitter.com/MScbnOmIQY
— India Today (@IndiaToday) August 5, 2017
Delhi: Voting underway for #VicePresidentialElection in Parliament; Congress president Sonia Gandhi cast her vote. pic.twitter.com/yoHuVM3EBO
— ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017
Gandhi had the support of liberal and secular journalists as well as members of the civil society.
All good wishes #GopalKrishnaGandhi for #VicePresidentialElection. Your sagacity and courage inspire us
— Sagarika Ghose (@sagarikaghose) August 5, 2017
Today if Gopal Krishna Gandhi a non UPA member fielded by bloc of 18 parties for VP emerges as winner.BJP loses 2019#LetsWinBackIndia pic.twitter.com/KJMObrp02G
— George Kurian (@Georgekurian4K) August 5, 2017
Well it may be numerically an uphill task but certainly we must register our ideological challenge to the inheritors of Godse today https://t.co/FooTe7lsHC
— Shehzad Poonawalla (@Shehzad_Ind) August 5, 2017
Why Naidu was chosen
Along with the president, the new vice-president would be setting the tone of how Parliament functions and what remains the equation of these two indirectly elected office-bearers with the prime minister, and his Union cabinet. It is expected that the election of both Kovind and Naidu would pave the way for smoother functioning of the BJP government in the Centre, led by PM Modi.
With Naidu heading the Rajya Sabha, which now has more BJP MPs than the nearest rival Congress, even the Upper House would be easier to dominate. This means that legislations brought in by the BJP government would have hardly any resistance from any platform within the top echelons of the legislative.