EC Issues Notification For Vice Presidential Elections:- A notification has been issued by the Election Commission on Tuesday asking Vice Presidential candidates to file their nominations for the elections.
The elections are scheduled for August 5. The tenure of incumbent Vice President, Hamid Ansari, who held the post for two consecutive terms, will end on August 10.
By July 18, the nominations can be submitted and the scrutiny of nominations will take place on July 19. The last date for the withdrawal of candidates is July 21. Rajya Sabha Secretary General Shamsher Sharif as been appointed as the returning officer by the Election Commission, for the polls.
The candidate for the Vice Presidential elections requires 20 MPs as proposers and 20 MPs seconders. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bharatiya Janata Party has 338 members in the 545-member Lok Sabha. In the Rajya Sabha, the BJP has 56 members out of 243, while the Congress, with 59 members, is the single largest party.
Special pens have been introduced by the Election Commission for the electors to mark their votes in the upcoming presidential and vice presidential polls. Last year, a controversy had arisen during the Rajya Sabha elections, after 12 Congress votes were declared invalid as the legislators had allegedly used their own pens, instead of the designated sketch pen at the polling booth. This had led to the defeat of Congress-backed independent candidate RK Anand.
The process for the Presidential Election is already underway with the election date set for July 17. NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind and Opposition candidate Meira Kumar have filed their papers for the top post. The results for the presidential election will be declared on July 20.
SUPRAJA
