New Delhi: The members of Parliament will elect the next Vice President of India on August 5, the Election Commission announced on Thursday.
"The term of office of Mohd. Hamid Ansari, Vice-President of India, is up to 10th August 2017. An election to fill the vacancy to be caused by the expiration of the term of office of the outgoing Vice-President needs to be completed before the expiration of the term of the present incunbent.
"The law provides that the notification for election may be issued on, or as soon as conveniently may be after, the sixtieth day before the expiry of term of the office of the outgoing Vice-President", Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi said.
The nomination paper of a candidate must be delivered to the Returning Officer at New Delhi at the place to be specified by him by a public notice either by the candidate or by any of his proposers or seconders between 11.00 a.m. and 3.00 p.m.
A nomination paper of a candidate has to be subscribed by at least twenty electors as proposers and at least another twenty electors as seconders.
An elector can subscribe to only one nomination paper of a candidate as either a proposer or seconder. The security deposit for the election is Rs. 15,000/- (Rupees fifteen thousand only), which is required to be made along with the nomination paper, the CEC said.
He said polling, if required, it will take place on August 5 and the counting will also take place on the same evening.
Following the ink controversy in Rajya Sabha polls in Haryana last year, the Election Commission has decided to use special pens for the electors to mark their votes in the July 17 presidential election and the vice presidential polls, according to PTI.
Votes marked with any other pen are liable to be rejected.
The decision to use special pens is based on the recommendations made by a working group set up by the poll panel to suggest ways to avoid repeat of such disputes in future polls.
Twelve votes marked using a wrong pen were declared invalid leading to the defeat of Congress-backed independent candidate R K Anand, a lawyer, to media baron Subhash Chandra.
Secretary General of Rajya Sabha Shumsher K Sheriff will be the returning officer for the election, Zaidi said.
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 some vacancies.
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. With its recent wins in the recent assembly polls, the BJP is set to emerge as the single largest party in the Rajya Sabha too next year and the NDA's tally would be close to 100.
It would, however, still be short of a majority in the upper house.
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