Explained | As Dhankhar quits, how numbers stack up in NDA's favour in polls to elect new Vice President

New Delhi: Even as loud political chatters continue to reverberate amid the surprising resignation by Jagdeep Dhankhar on Monday evening, the BJP-led NDA is at a comfortable position when it comes to electing the new Vice-President.

The vice president is elected by members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and nominated members of the Upper House are also eligible to cast their vote.

The Lok Sabha, with a capacity of 543 members has one seat vacant- Basirhat in West Bengal while Rajya Sabha has 5 vacant seats which has a 245 member capacity.

The total strength of the house is 786 and the winning candidate needs 394 votes, one more than half the numbers, considering all eligible voters exercise their franchise.

Of the five vacancies in Rajya Sabha, four are from Jammu and Kashmir and one from Punjab, where sitting member Sanjeev Arora quit the seat after being elected to the state assembly in a bypoll last month.

Now coming to the numbers in actual, the BJP-led NDA has the support of 293 members in the 542-member House.

They also have the backing of 129 members in Rajya Sabha which has a effective strength of 240. This is of course applicable if all the nominated members vote for the NDA pick.

Thus, the NDA has the collective support of 422 members between both the Houses.

According to Clause 2 of Article 68 of the Constitution, an election to fill a vacancy in the office of the vice president occurring due to his death, resignation or removal, or otherwise, will be held "as soon as possible" after it goes vacant.

Article 66 (1) of the Constitution also says that the election shall be held in accordance with the system of Proportional Representation by means of the single transferable vote and the voting at such election shall be by secret ballot.

The vice president is the second highest constitutional office in the country. He serves for a five-year term, but can continue to be in office, irrespective of the expiry of the term, until the successor assumes office.

Jagdeep Dhankhar on Monday became the third vice president to have resigned mid-term. Earlier, Vice President V V Giri, who had taken over as the acting president after the death of incumbent Zakir Hussain on May 3, 1969, had resigned from the post.