Ansari re-elected India VP

Hamid Ansari has been re-elected as the 14th vice president of India. He received 490 votes in his favour. His rival, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nominee Jaswant Singh polled 238 voted. A total of 740 members of parliament cast their vote in the vice presidential election in which the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) presidential nominee Hamid Ansari appears all set to come out victorious against (National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) Jaswant Singh. Forty-seven out of the total 787 MPs in both Houses did not cast their votes, who include ailing union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh who is admitted in a Chennai Hospital. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said 21 members from BJD, 11 from TDP, 6 from Congress and supporting parties, including Deshmukh, and two nominated members did not cast their votes. Lok Sabha Secretary General TK Vishwanathan, the returning officer for the poll, made the announcement about Ansari’s re-election minutes after the counting ended on Tuesday evening at Parliament House. Polling in the vice presidential election was held earlier in the day. Vishwanathan said that 787 members were eligible to cast vote and 736 exercised their franchise. Eight votes were found invalid. He said that Ansari needed 365 votes to be declared elected. “Therefore, Ansari is duly elected as vice president of India,” Vishwanathan announced. Others who did not vote include 2 each from BJP, AGP, RSP and TRS and YS Jaganmohan Reddy, one of the two members of YSR Congress. BJP member Shatrughan Sinha was sick while Dilip Singh Judev could not come as his mother was not well. Trinamool Congress members Kakoli Dastidar and Kabir Suman were abroad. So was SP member Brij Bhushan Singh. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were among early voters. BJP leaders LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Murli Manohar Joshi, BSP supremo Mayawati and SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav cast their ballots before noon. BJD, TDP and RSP had declared that they would abstain from voting. The three parties together have 34 members in both Houses of Parliament. With the total number of voting members reduced to 752, the halfway mark for Ansari has become 377. UPA managers claim to have the declared support of nearly 500 members. Singh, 74-year-old, a former minister of external affairs and finance, has the support of NDA and ADMK. Batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar and film actor Rekha, both nominated members of the Rajya Sabha, will attend parliament when it convenes for the Monsoon session on Wednesday. “I will attend parliament on Wednesday), but I am not sure about the entire session,” Tendulkar told reporters after casting his vote. Rekha nodded in the affirmative when asked whether she would attend the monsoon session of parliament. Earlier, Tendulkar and Rekha exercised their franchise in the vice-presidential election. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Shukla escorted Tendulkar and Rekha to Parliament House from his residence where both had arrived. Asked on how many days Tendulkar would be able to attend parliament session, Shukla said, “Sachin the cricketer has no relation with Sachin the parliamentarian. He has already made it clear that cricket will remain his priority for the time being. “Also the parliamentary function doesn’t stop him from performing his cricketing duties. He is aware of his parliamentary responsibilities and will perform his duty when the time comes.” Tendulkar and Rekha were nominated to the Upper House in May this year. While Rekha had taken oath as member during the budget session, it will be Tendulkar’s first appearance in parliament when it is in session. The monsoon session of parliament promises to kick up a lot of heat and dust as opposition parties are planning to raise issues like communal violence in Assam, rising prices, economy and drought. Seeking to corner the government, BJP has announced plans to raise on the very first day the issue of Assam clashes, which Manmohan has called the a blot on the nation. From gulftoday