Only four of 16 vice presidential elections were won without contest

New Delhi: Only four of the 16 elections for the post of the vice president of India have been won without a contest, while two elections witnessed a multi-cornered fight.

Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, who served as vice president for two terms from 1952 to 1962, won both elections without a contest. In 1952, Janab Shaik Khadir Hussain from Nandyal in Andhra Pradesh filed nomination for the election, but his papers were rejected, leaving Radhakrishan as the sole candidate.

In 1979, noted jurist and former chief justice of India Mohammad Hidayatullah was elected unopposed as vice president.

Hidayatullah also holds the unique distinction of having served as the chief justice of India, vice president and acting president.

As chief justice of India, Hidayatullah stepped in to serve as acting president for a month in 1969 when V V Giri quit as acting president and vice president to contest the presidential election.

Giri assumed charge as acting president after incumbent Zakir Hussain died in harness on May 3, 1969.

In 1987, the then Maharashtra governor, Shankar Dayal Sharma, won the vice presidential election uncontested. Twenty-seven people filed nomination papers for the ninth vice presidential election and the returning officer found only Sharma's application as valid.

In the next vice presidential election in 1992, K R Narayanan polled 700 votes of the 701 ballots that were found valid. His opponent Kaka Joginder Singh, popularly known as Dharti Pakad, got only one vote. While 711 votes were cast in the election, 10 were found to be invalid.

The only time the vice presidential election witnessed a triangular fight was in 2007, when UPA candidate M Hamid Ansari was pitted against NDA nominee Najma Heptullah and Third Front nominee Rasheed Masood.

Out of the total 790 electors, 762 cast their votes, of which 10 were found to be invalid. Out of 752 valid votes, Ansari secured 455 votes, Heptulla bagged 222 votes and Masood got 75 votes.

In 1962, Zakir Hussain won the vice presidential election by a margin of 554 votes against N C Samantsinhar. Out of the electoral college of 745, 596 members cast their votes, of which 14 were found to be invalid.

In 1967, V V Giri bagged 483 of the 676 valid votes to win the vice presidential poll against Prof Habib.

In 1969, G S Pathak became the vice president, defeating five other candidates in the fray. The elections were necessitated due to the resignation of Giri from the posts of acting president and vice president to contest the presidential elections that year.

In 1974, B D Jatti became the vice president, defeating N E Horo. Jatti polled 521 votes against 141 bagged by Horo.

In 1984, R Venkataraman won the vice presidential election, having polled 508 of the 715 valid votes, defeating Bapu Chandrasen Kamble. Venkatraman stepped down in 1987 to contest the presidential election and Shankar Dayal Sharma was elected as vice president in the election that year.

In 1997, Krishna Kant defeated Surjit Singh in the vice presidential election. Kant polled 441 votes against 273 bagged by Singh.

In 2002, BJP leader Bhairon Singh Shekhawat defeated Congress nominee Sushilkumar Shinde in the vice presidential election.

Shekhawat polled 454 votes of the 759 valid votes, while Shinde managed to win 305 votes.

In 2007, M Hamid Ansari won the vice presidential election and was fielded again by the then UPA government in 2012.

In 2012, Ansari polled 490 votes to defeat BJP nominee Jaswant Singh, who got 238 votes out of the total 728 valid votes.

In 2017, BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu defeated Congress-led UPA Gopalkrishna Gandhi to become the 13th vice president. Naidu won 516 of the 760 valid votes against 244 secured by Gandhi.

In 2022, BJP-led NDA nominee Jagdeep Dhankhar defeated Congress-led UPA nominee Margaret Alva. Dhankhar won 528 votes against Alva's 182.