Vice Presidential polls: INDIA bloc MPs hold mock polling; BJD, BRS to abstain from voting

A day ahead of the Vice Presidential election 2025, the Opposition’s INDIA bloc MPs on Monday held a crucial meeting in the Central Hall of Parliament.

The MPs held mock polling to prepare for the Vice Presidential election, which will be held on Tuesday, September 9.

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The Congress-led INDIA bloc has fielded B Sudershan Reddy as its candidate against BJP-led NDA’s C P Radhakrishnan.

Unless some extraordinary developments take place on Tuesday, it appears a symbolic contest given the numbers clearly favour the NDA candidate.

At present, both the Houses of Parliament have 781 MPs, including 239 Rajya Sabha MPs and 542 Lok Sabha MPs, who will be eligible to vote.

However, the BJD and the BRS have decided to abstain from the voting, bringing down the total number of votes to 770 and majority mark to 386.

The BJP-led NDA has 435 MPs and the alliance is also likely to get the support of 11 YSR Congress MPs and AAP’s rebel Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal.

On the other hand, the Opposition has just 324 votes.

BJD, BRS to abstain from voting 

Former Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KTR)-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has announced that its four Rajya Sabha MPs will skip the Vice-Presidential elections as “an expression of anguish of Telangana’s farmers over the shortage of urea in the state”.

The decision was taken at a meeting between KTR with party leaders. In 2022, the BRS had voted in favour of the Opposition’s candidate.

Besides BRS, Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has also decided to abstain from the voting.

Addressing a press conference in Bhubaneswar, BJD MP Sasmit Patra said that Patnaik took the decision after consulting with senior party leaders and members of the political affairs committee. He said that the party will maintain an equal distance from both the NDA and the INDIA bloc. In 2022, BJD had supported NDA candidate Jagdeep Dhankhar.