Hamid Ansari gets second term as Vice President

New Delhi - On expected lines, UPA candidate Hamid Ansari on Tuesday won the race for Vice President for the second time, beating NDA candidate Jaswant Singh with a huge margin.

Out of the 736 votes polled in the election, Ansari got 490 votes, whereas Singh got only 238 votes.

736 of the 787 MPs in both Houses cast their votes. Out of 787, eight votes were invalid.

"I declare Hamid Ansari as duly elected to the office of the Vice President of India," announced Lok Sabha Secretary General and Returning Officer for Vice Presidential poll TK Vishwanathan.

After being re-elected to the penultimate post Anasri said that he would continue to work for realisation of the aspirations of the people of India.

Voting for the Vice President began at 10 am and continued till 5 pm.

BJD, TDP and RSP abstained from voting in the Vice Presidential poll. BJD has 21 MPS, TDP has 11 MPs and RSP has two MPs.
 
Those who did not cast their votes include six from Congress and its supporting parties, two each from BJP, AGP, RSP and TRS and one from YSR Congress. Two nominated members also did not cast their votes.

Out of the total 790 members of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha that form the electoral college for Vice Presidential poll, 3 are vacant with Pranab Mukherjee becoming President, Vijay Bahuguna Uttarakhand Chief Minister and the election of BJP MP J Shanta having been set aside by a High Court.

75-year-old Ansari, a career diplomat who missed out in the recent Presidential race is second incumbent to get the send term for Vice President after late philosopher-statesman Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan.

The election was on expected lines with the UPA cobbling its numbers comfortably on the lines it had managed during the Presidential poll including bagging the support of key constituent Trinamool Congress and outside allies SP and BSP.

On the other side, Jaswant Singh got the surprise backing of 14 MPs of AIADMK. Singh's personal equations with Jayalalitha seemed to have done the trick.

The Vice President is elected by members of an electoral college which consists of members of both the houses of Parliament.

The election is carried out in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote.

Nominated members of the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha are also entitled to take part in the election.