Vice President election to be held on August 5

The polling for electing the new Vice President will take place on August 5, the Election Commission announced on Thursday.

Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi, along with Election Commissioners A K Joti and O P Rawat, announced the schedule of the election of the Vice President at the headquarters of the poll panel at Nirvachan Sadan in New Delhi.

The Election Commission announced that July 18 would be the last date for filing nomination for the vice-presidential election and the polling, if required, would be held on August 5. The counting of votes would also be conducted on August 5 and the result would be declared the same day itself, said the Chief Election Commissioner.

The term of the current Vice President M Hamid Ansari will come to its end on August 10.

The EC appointed Shamsher Sharif, secretary general of Rajya Sabha, as the Returning Officer for the vice-presidential elections, said Zaidi.

The Vice-President is elected by an electoral college consisting of members of both Houses of Parliament, in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote cast by secret ballot. The electoral college at present consists of 785 members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

The ruling National Democratic Alliance led by Bharatiya Janata Party has 448 members, while the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance has 238.

The election of the new Vice President will be preceded by the polling for election of the President, scheduled on July 17. The NDA put up Ram Nath Kovind as its candidate to succeed President Pranab Mukherjee in the Rashtrapati Bhavan, while former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar is the nominee of the Congress and other opposition parties.