EC notifies vice presidential election

New Delhi, July 4 (IANS) The Election Commission on Tuesday issued notification for the vice presidential election, setting in motion the process for filing nominations.

The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the opposition parties have not yet announced any candidate for the vice presidential election and the process of choosing a nominee is expected to pick up momentum over the next few days.

The Congress leaders had indicated on Monday that major opposition parties may field a candidate in the vice presidential election too.

Earlier, the Congress and some opposition parties together fielded Meira Kumar as their candidate for the July 17 presidential election against the NDA's Ram Nath Kovind.

The last date for filing nominations for the vice presidential election is July 18 while the scrutiny of nominations will take place on July 19.

The nominations can be withdrawn till July 21 and polling and counting of votes, if needed, will take place on August 5.

Rajya Sabha Secretary General Shumsher K. Sheriff is the Returning Officer for the vice presidential election.

Hamid Ansari has been the Vice President and ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha since August 11, 2007. He won the second term on August 11, 2012. His present term ends on August 10.

The Electoral College for the Vice President's election consists of members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

The Rajya Sabha has 233 elected and 12 nominated members, while the Lok Sabha has 543 elected and two nominated members.

A nomination paper has to be backed by at least 20 electors as proposers and at least 20 electors as seconders.

The electors will be provided "special pens" to cast their ballot and use of any other pen will render the vote invalid.

The vice presidential election will take place through secret ballot and political parties cannot issue any whip to their MPs.