Today is polling day in the Vice Presidential election. Results will also come today. The tenure of the incumbent Vice President Venkaiah Naidu ends on August 10. In such a situation, whoever wins between NDA's Jagdeep Dhankhar and opposition candidate Margaret Alva will be sworn in as the Vice President on August 11. 

Meanwhile, it is important to know how the Vice President is elected? Who can contest the election of the Vice President? How is the election of the Vice President different from the election of the President? How is it decided to win and lose? Let's know…

Voting will continue from 10 am to 5 pm today. After that the votes will be counted. The results will come only on August 6. The new Vice President will take oath on August 11. 

In the Vice Presidential election, 233 elected MPs of Rajya Sabha, 12 nominated MPs in Rajya Sabha and 543 MPs of Lok Sabha can cast their votes. A total of 788 such people can cast their vote. Due to the dissolution of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, at present four seats under the quota of Jammu and Kashmir are vacant in the Rajya Sabha. 

One seat is also vacant due to the resignation of the Chief Minister of Tripura. Thus the current number of elected members is only 228. At the same time, three seats of nominated MPs are also vacant. In this way, the total number of members in the Electoral College is currently 780. 

Article 66 of the Constitution deals with the procedure for the election of the Vice-President. This election is done by proportional representation method. Voting is done through single transferable vote system. In simple words, the voter of this election has to vote on the basis of preference. For example, among the candidates present on the ballot paper, he writes his first choice as one, second choice two and so on as his priority number in front of other candidates. This whole process is done by secret ballot method. The voter has to write his preference only in the form of Roman numerals. For writing this also a special pen provided by the Election Commission has to be used. Since there are only two candidates in this election, the votes required to win will go to one candidate in the first round of counting. So this process will not have to be repeated again and again. 

First it is seen how many votes all the candidates got with the first priority. Then the first priority votes received by all are added up. The total number is divided by two and one is added to the quotient. The number now obtained is considered to be the quota that a candidate needs to remain in the counting.

If in the first count itself, a candidate secures votes equal to or more than the quota required for victory, then he is declared victorious. If this is not possible, then the process is carried forward. First, the candidate who gets the fewest votes in the first count is eliminated from the race. 

After this, the candidate who is out of the race is given first preference votes to see who is given second priority. These second priority votes are then transferred to the accounts of other candidates. If these votes are combined, if a candidate's votes are equal to or more than the quota number, then that candidate is declared the winner. 

If no candidate is selected even at the end of the second round, the process continues. The candidate receiving the fewest votes is eliminated. The ballot papers given to him first priority and the ballot papers received by him during the second counting are re-examined and it is seen who is given the next priority among them. 

Then that preference is transferred to the respective candidates. This process continues and the candidates with the lowest number of votes will be excluded until the number of votes received by any one candidate is equal to the quota. 

Although the constitutional responsibilities of the Vice President are very limited, but as the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, the role becomes very important. Apart from this, his responsibility becomes more important when the post of President becomes vacant due to some reason. In such a situation, the responsibility of the President also has to be performed by the Vice President because the post of the Head of the State cannot be kept vacant. According to the protocol of the country, the President is also at the top. Then the Vice President and then the Prime Minister.

How different is the election of the Vice President from the Presidential election?

In the election of the Vice-President, members of both houses of Parliament cast their votes. These include nominated members of the Rajya Sabha. Elected MPs and MLAs of all states vote in the presidential election. Nominated MPs cannot vote in the presidential election, but this is not the case in the vice-presidential election. Such members can also vote in the Vice Presidential election.

Jagdeep Dhankhar was born in village Kithana of Jhunjhunu district in the year 1951 in a simple farmer family. His father's name is Gokal Chand and mother's name is Kesari Devi. Jagdeep comes second among his four siblings. She was married to Sudesh Dhankhar in 1979. They both have a daughter, Kamna. Who is married to Kartikeya Vajpayee. 

He did his early education from the Government Secondary School in the village Kithana. After studying up to the fifth standard from the village, he was enrolled in the Government Middle School in Gardhana. After this he also studied in Sainik School, Chittorgarh. After graduating in Physics after 12th, Jagdeep Dhankhar completed his law studies from Rajasthan University. Dhankhar was also selected for IIT, NDA and IAS, but he chose advocacy. He also started his advocacy from Rajasthan High Court. He was also the chairman of the Rajasthan Bar Council. 

Dhankhar started his politics with Janata Dal. Dhankhar became an MP from Jhunjhunu in 1989. He was also made a Union Minister of State in the government of VP Singh and Chandrashekhar from 1989 to 1991. However, when Janata Dal cut Jagdeep Dhankhar's ticket in 1991 Lok Sabha elections, he left the party and joined Congress and contested from Kishangarh in Ajmer in 1993 on Congress party ticket and became MLA. In 2003, he got disillusioned with the Congress and left the Congress and joined the BJP. Jagdeep Dhankhar, 70, was appointed as the 28th Governor of Bengal by President Ram Nath Kovind on 30 July 2019. 

Margaret Alva was born on 14 April 1942. Alva's education took place in Bangalore. She married Niranjan Alva on 24 May 1964. He has one daughter and three sons. Niranjan Alva is the son of the freedom fighter and the first pair of Indian Parliamentarians Joaquim Alva and Violet Alva.

Alva was elected a member of Rajya Sabha for the first time in 1974. He completed four consecutive terms of six years each. After this she was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1999. She also got the responsibility of Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs in 1984 and later Youth and Sports, Women and Child Development. In 1991, he was given the responsibility of Minister of State for Personnel, Pension, Public Deprivation Prosecution and Administrative Reforms. Alva has been the governor of states like Rajasthan, Goa.