New Vice President difficult in monsoon session amid set timelines

New Delhi: Election of the new Vice President, necessitated in the wake of the sudden resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar, is likely to take place only after the Monsoon session of Parliament due to the procedure involved. While the Election Commission of India has begun the process of vetting the electoral roll of both Houses in consultation with their secretariats. Rajya Sabha Secretary General will be the Returning Officer of the elections.

As per the Constitution, no deadline has been fixed for election of the new Vice President in case of resignation of the incumbent and the general understanding is that it should be conducted "as soon as possible". However, once the Election Commission issues a notification, the polling process will have to be completed within 60 days.

Rules state that 14 days have to be given for filing of nomination papers, followed by three-four days for withdrawal and scrutiny of forms. Another 14 days will be set aside for campaigning. It appears unlikely that the new Vice President will be elected in the monsoon session that ends on August 21 and has only 20 working days left.


The Vice Presidential election electoral college has 782 members at present with Lok Sabha having 542 members and the Rajya Sabha 240. The Basirhat Lok Sabha seat in West Bengal fell vacant due to the death of TMC MP Sheikh Nurul Islam while the two Anglo-Indian nominated seats have not been filled. In the Rajya Sabha, the four seats of Jammu and Kashmir are vacant while Punjab AAP MP Sanjeev Arora resigned on July 1 after winning the Ludhiana West Assembly by-election.

The NDA has a total of 427 members with 293 in the Lok Sabha and 134 in the Rajya Sabha, while the combined Opposition has only 355 (249 in the Lower House and 106 in the Upper House. Hence, the candidate of the ruling dispensation will win hands down.

If the Election Commission follows the protocol by the book, it will be a long drawn process. Moreover, if the acrimony between the Treasury and the Opposition is any indicator, the latter is not likely to give the government a walkover. In which case the 14 days time for campaigning, followed by polling, counting and declaration of result will have to be set aside.

In such a scenario where polling is held after the monsoon session, MPs of both Houses who are based out of Delhi will have to visit the national capital on polling day.