Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: IT will be National Democratic Alliance’s CP Radhakrishnan versus former Supreme Court Judge B Sudershan Reddy of the INDIA bloc in the Vice-Presidential Poll on September 9.
Accompanied by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Radhakrishnan filed his nomination papers on August 20. He filed his nomination in four sets, each bearing the signatures of 20 proposers and 20 seconders. PM Modi was the chief proposer as he signed and submitted the first set of nomination papers, while the remaining sets were signed by other Union ministers and NDA leaders.
Top ministers NDA parties including LJP (RamVilas) president Chirag Paswan, JDU’s Lalan Singh, Hindustani Awam Morcha’s Jitan Ram Manjhi and Apna Dal leader Anupriya Patel were present. The election is being held after Jagdeep Dhankhar resigned from the post of Vice President on 21 July citing health reasons.
In terms of numbers, Radhakrishnan has a strong case. Currently, there are 543 MPs in the Lok Sabha, while the Rajya Sabha has 233 MPs out of a total of 245 members. The BJP has 240 MPs in the lower house and 102 in the upper house, and with the support of allies, the total number of NDA members goes up to 421 (298 in the Lok Sabha and 128 in the Rajya Sabha). Among other non-alliance parties, YSRCP having 11 MPs, has announced support to the NDA candidate.