Senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu has been elected as India's Vice President, said the Returning Officer Shumsher K Sherif on Saturday. He secured 516 votes out of the 760 valid votes.
Nearly 98.21 per cent of the members of Parliament exercised their franchise till evening in the Vice-Presidential poll here today.
Senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu has been elected as India's Vice President, said the Returning Officer and Rajya Sabha Secretary General Shumsher K Sherif here on Saturday. Naidu secured 516 votes out of the 760 valid votes.
Out of the 785 voters in the electorate-MPs of both the Houses of Parliament—771 voted (98.2 per cent).
Sherif told reporters after counting that 11 votes were invalid and out of the 760 valid votes Naidu got 516 votes and his opponent Gopalkrishna Gandhi secured 244 votes. The candidate wanted a minimum of 381 votes to win the polls.
Saturday’s poll was the 15th Vice Presidential poll. Naidu became the 13th Vice President of the country succeeding Hamid Ansari.
Born in a farmer’s family in Chavatapalem, Andra Pradesh in 1949, Naidu is a graduate in law. He has an experience of almost three decades in legislative and Parliamentary forums as MLA of Andhra Pradesh Assembly and MP in Rajya Sabha. He was a Cabinet Minister in AB Vajpayee and Narendra Modi Cabinets.
He will take oath on August 11, a day after the term of the present incumbent Hamid Ansari ends.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah met Naidu to congratulate him.
“I am confident @MVenkaiahNaidu will serve the nation as a diligent & dedicated Vice President, committed to the goal of nation building,” Modi tweeted