The Opposition camp on Wednesday got a boost with the Aam Aadmi Party and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha announcing support to their joint vice presidential candidate Margaret Alva, but the numbers are still firmly in favour of NDA nominee Jagdeep Dhankhar. The vice presidential poll to elect the successor to M Venkaiah Naidu will be held on August 6. The results will be out the same day.
As per the electoral college arithmetic, Dhankhar has two-thirds of votes in his favour as the BJP by itself has 303 members in the Lok Sabha and 91 in the Rajya Sabha. With the support of some regional parties like the Janta Dal (United), YSRCP, BSP, AIADMK and Shiv Sena, the NDA nominee is likely to get over 515 votes, enough for a comfortable win for him.
Alva is likely to get around 190-200 votes, going by the support announced by parties for her candidature so far. The Trinamool Congress, which has 23 MPs in Lok Sabha and 16 in Rajya Sabha, has decided to abstain from the vice presidential election.
Some regional parties like the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and the Telugu Desham Party have not yet shown their cards and may take a call soon.
The Aam Aadmi Party, which is in power in Delhi and Punjab, announced its support to Alva on Wednesday. The party's political affairs committee "unanimously" decided to support Alva after a meeting chaired by its national convenor Arvind Kejriwal. "All the Rajya Sabha members of the party will vote for the opposition candidate Margaret Alva on August 6," the party said. The AAP has 10 MPs in the Rajya Sabha, but it has no presence in the Lok Sabha after Bhagwant Mann resigned after he became the chief minister of Punjab.