Vice President election: Polling begins for NDA’s Radhakrishnan vs INDIA bloc’s Sudershan Reddy; PM Modi casts first vote

Prime Minister Narendra Modi (Image: PTI)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday cast the first vote in the Vice-Presidential polls, which is seeing a direct contest between NDA's CP Radhakrishnan and the Opposition's B Sudershan Reddy.

His vote marks the beginning of the V-P polls, which will conclude at 5 pm today. The counting of votes, meanwhile, will take place from 6 pm onwards and results will be out later in the evening.

After voting, PM Modi will leave for survey of flood-affected areas in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.

On Monday, PM Modi addressed the NDA MPs at a meeting in Parliament's Library building.

"Participated in the NDA meeting in Delhi, attended by MPs across the NDA family. The candidature of Thiru CP Radhakrishnan has generated immense enthusiasm all across. People believe that he will be an excellent Vice President, who will enrich the office with his wisdom and insights," Modi later said on X.

Separately, leaders of the INDIA bloc parties like Congress, Samajwadi Party, DMK, TMC, RJD, JMM, Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP (SP), CPI and CPI-M met in the central hall of Samvidhan Sadan (old parliament building) and were briefed about the election process.

The vice-presidential election was necessitated due to the sudden resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar on the first day of monsoon session on July 21.

Biju Janata Dal (BJD), Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) have announced their decision to abstain from the vice presidential polls. Meanwhile, the BJP MPs have expressed confidence in CP Radhakrishnan's win.