NDA’s win is certain, but opposition unity faces severe strain.
New Delhi: The vice presidential election to be held on Tuesday is going to be very important for NDA and India Alliance. On the basis of numbers, NDA candidate C. P. Radhakrishnan’s victory is certain. But NDA’s strategists are trying to somehow make a dent in the constituent parties of India Alliance. In such a situation, it has to be seen whether the votes of India Alliance remain united.
Congress, which is leading the India Alliance, has a double challenge in terms of votes. One is to stop cross-voting of its MPs and the other is to keep allies together. Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, was keeping the opposition united till the monsoon session, but the Voter Rights Yatra taken out in Bihar has disturbed the equations. Even after this, if the votes of the constituent parties of India Alliance remain united, then it will be a big achievement for Rahul Gandhi.
During the monsoon session, Rahul Gandhi started the Voter Rights Yatra from Sasaram in Bihar on August 17. His partner in this yatra was RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav. In the monsoon session, the Congress and the entire opposition had maintained a deadlock throughout the session of Parliament on the issue of SIR, the intensive investigation of the Bihar voter list conducted by the Election Commission. Congress was full of enthusiasm at the beginning of the yatra. But on the instructions of the Supreme Court, the Election Commission released the list of 65 lakh voters deleted from the voter list. Due to this, the SIR issue of the opposition weakened.
Congress and RJD could not find even one person among the deleted names whose name had been deleted. After this, the issue of Rahul Gandhi’s vote theft yatra arose. But in this yatra, no decision could be taken between RJD and Congress regarding the post of Chief Minister. The effect of this was that the enthusiasm with which the yatra started was not as much in the last phase. There was chaos on the last day of the yatra in Patna. Big leaders of the All India Alliance did not come. The rally had to be postponed. Only a small meeting was held. Many controversies arose due to the yatra.
Rahul and Tejashwi raised slogans like “vote thief gaddi chhod.” Abuses hurled at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his mother became an issue. In these circumstances, it will be interesting to see at the time of voting for the vice presidential election whether the constituents of the All India Alliance remain united or decide not to participate in the voting.
TMC did not vote in the 2022 vice presidential election. This time, so far, TMC is directly clashing with the Modi government at the Centre. The issue is SIR. After Bihar, Bengal is the second state where work on SIR has started. TMC is strongly opposing SIR. There are elections in Bengal next year. There is a big dilemma for TMC: whether to support Congress or stay separate.
Congress and Left parties will contest elections together in Bengal. They will challenge TMC. Along with them, UBT’s Shiv Sena and NCP Sharad Pawar were standing together when Congress candidate B. Sudarshan Reddy filed his nomination. It remains to be seen what decision they take on the day of voting.
It will also be monitored whether a constituent party like DMK casts its full votes or whether there is a dent. As far as NDA is concerned, there is less chance of any disturbance with TDP. The way former Chief Minister Chandrasekhar Rao has expelled his daughter from the party, there seems to be a possibility of him joining BJP. The vice presidential election will give indications of this. However, BRS has said that it will vote against the Congress candidate.
Due to the resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar, the election of the vice president has to be conducted two years in advance. According to the numerical strength, there are 782 votes in both the houses of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. The MPs of both the houses do secret voting. There is no whip in this. Anyone can vote for anyone. NDA has 427 MPs of its own. 392 are needed to win. According to this, C. P. Radhakrishnan is sure to become the next vice president. India Alliance has 355 MPs. On September 9, the interest will be on whether B. Sudarshan Reddy gets 355 votes or less.
