Voter Rolls Glue Opposition Together, Raise Hopes In Vice-President Polls

The Opposition is hoping for better luck in the coming vice-presidential election after the Election Commission's voter roll revision acted as a unifying factor for parties like Trinamool Congress - which is expecting the exercise to be repeated in their states ahead of next year's election. 

Congress's Rahul Gandhi has invited the leaders of India Alliance for a dinner meeting on August 7 - a day before its protest march from Parliament to the Election Commission. 

The agenda of the meeting includes the Vice Presidential election and the alliance is expected to decide on a candidate. 

A senior leader of bloc told NDTV that the Opposition is looking for a candidate who will make the election interesting. 

The leaders feel the mathematics of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha is such that if a strong candidate is fielded for the post, the the contest will not be one-sided like last time, sources said. 

Last time, the Trinamool Congress - which had 35 MPs --had abstained from voting, contending that they were not consulted during the selection of Margaret Alva. 

This time, the Trinamool Congress has maintained unity with the opposition, including the Congress on the issue of SIR, anticipating that the exercise will be carried out in Bengal ahead of next year's assembly election. 

The leaders feel the open question now is if the Opposition forwards a candidate from Bihar or Andhra Pradesh, what will NDA allies Nitish Kumar and Chandra Babu Naidu do, sources said. 

Since the resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar, the NDA has also been looking for a suitable candidate for the post. It is believed that this time BJP will pick one of its key leaders who can run the Rajya Sabha properly. 

The date of the Vice Presidential election has already been announced. 

The voting will be held on September 9, in which 543 MPs from the Lok Sabha and 233 from the Rajya Sabha will participate. The 12 nominated MPs of Rajya Sabha will also take part in the election.

In 2022, Jagdeep Dhankhar had got 528 votes - way ahead of Opposition candidate Margaret Alva, who polled 182.

Mr Dhankhar had the support of several non-NDA parties - Naveen Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal, Jaganmohan Reddy's YSR Congress, Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party, Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party (which is now part of NDA), and the Akali Dal. Fifty-five MPs did not cast their vote.

Asked who would be the next Vice President, Congress's Shashi Tharoor said he had "no idea". 

"All we know is that it will be somebody whom the ruling party nominates, as we already know the composition of the electorate. It's the two houses of Parliament. Unlike the Presidential election, where the state assemblies also vote. For the Vice President, it's only the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. So we already know the majority. I think it's fairly clear that the next vice president will be the nominee of the ruling party," he said.