Vice-Presidential Election of India 2022 was the 16th Vice-Presidential election to elect the 14th Vice-President of India.
- Voting for the Vice-Presidential election was held on 6 August 2022.
- There were two contesting candidates namely, Shri Jagdeep Dhankar and Smt Margaret Alva for the 16th Vice-Presidential election.
» The Election Commission had appointed Shri Utpal Kumar Singh, Secretary-General, Lok Sabha as the Returning Officer for the Vice-Presidential Election and Shri PC Tripathy, Joint Secretary and Shri Raju Srivastava, Director, Lok Sabha Secretariat, as the Assistant Returning Officers.
Voting for the Vice-Presidential Election of India 2022:
For 2022, 16th Vice-Presidential Election, the Electoral College consists of:
- 233 elected members of Rajya Sabha,
- 12 nominated members of Rajya Sabha, and
- 543 elected members of Lok Sabha.
Electoral College comprises of a total of 788 members of both Houses of Parliament. Since, all the electors are members of both Houses of Parliament, the value of vote of each Member of Parliament would be same i.e. 1 (one).
Vice-Presidential Election of India 2022 Result:
Out of a total 780 electors who were eligible to vote, 725 electors exercised their franchise, out of which 15 ballot papers were declared invalid.
- The total number of valid ballot papers was 710. The total number of invalid ballot papers was 15.
- Shri Jagdeep Dhankar secured total of 528 votes, while Smt Margaret Alva has garnered 182 votes.
» The Returning Officer, after the counting of votes was over, declared Shri Jagdeep Dhankar elected as the next Vice President of India on August 6, 2022.
Swearing-in ceremony:
- Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar took over as the 14th Vice President of India and Chairman of Rajya Sabha on 11 August 2022.
A renowned lawyer and former West Bengal Governor, Shri Dhankhar, was administered the oath of office by the President, Smt Droupadi Murmu at a swearing-in ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 11 August.
Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar was elected to the Parliament of India in 1989 from Jhunjhunu Parliamentary Constituency. In July 2019, Shri Dhankhar was appointed as the Governor of West Bengal.
Important Points of Vice-Presidential Election of India:
- The term of office of Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu, Vice-President of India, was ended on 10th August, 2022.
- As per Article 68 of the Constitution of India, an election to fill the vacancy caused by the expiration of the term of office of the outgoing Vice-President is required to be completed before the expiration of the term.
- Article 324 of the Constitution read with the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Act, 1952 and the Presidential and Vice – Presidential Elections Rules, 1974. According to the Article the superintendence, direction and control of the conduct of the election of the President of India is vested in the Election Commission of India.
- As per Article 66 of the Constitution of India, the Vice-President is elected by the members of the Electoral College consisting of the members of both Houses of Parliament in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote.
- As per Rule 40 of the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Rules, 1974, the Commission shall maintain a list of members of the Electoral College referred to in Article 66 with their addresses correct up to date, for the purpose of Vice-Presidential election.
- As per Rule 8 of the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Rules, 1974, poll for the election will be taken in the Parliament House.
- A nomination paper of a candidate has to be subscribed by at least twenty electors as proposers and by at least other twenty electors as seconders. An elector can subscribe to only one nomination paper of a candidate as either a proposer or a seconder and is governed by Section 5B (5) of the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Act, 1952.