As the voting begins to elect next Vice President of India on Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the first to cast his vote.

Apart from PM, Union home minister Amit Shah, Union Ministers Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Rajnath Singh and Piyush Goyal also casted their vote for the Vice Presidential election at the Parliament.

In this Vice Presidential election, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) nominee Jagdeep Dhankar  is pitted against the Opposition nominee Margaret Alva.

The voting began at 10 am and will continue till 5 pm where all MPs of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, including nominated members, are entitled to vote in the vice presidential election. Votes will be counted today itself.

India’s next Vice-President of the country will take the oath of office on August 11, a day after the term of the incumbent Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu ends.

While Janata Dal (United), YSRCP, BSP, AIADMK and Shiv Sena have expressed their support for Dhankar, the AAP Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) have expressed their support to Alva.

However, the Trinamool Congress has said that it is abstaining from the vote
Dhankhar filed his nomination papers on July 18, before Returning Officer and Secretary General, Lok Sabha in the Parliament House.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, and BJP chief JP Nadda were present when Dhankar filed his nomination.

Dhankhar, who is a lawyer by profession, joined politics in 1989. He became the governor of West Bengal in July 2019 and has made headlines since then over his tumultuous relations with the Mamata Banerjee government. He tendered his resignation as the Governor of West Bengal.

Alva filed her nomination for the vice presidential election on July 19. Opposition parties on July 17 decided to field the former Rajasthan Governor as their joint candidate for the vice presidential election.

In 2017, the NDA nominated Venkaiah Naidu as its candidate for the vice-presidential election and his term ends on August 10, 2022.

The vice president of India, which is the second-highest constitutional post in the country, is elected through an electoral college consisting of members of the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha.