More than a dozen MPs are not voting in the election for the 15th Vice President of India on Tuesday. These members range from Punjab's independent MPs Amritpal Singh and Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa, to parties such as the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), Odisha's Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Telangana's Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) — for various reasons.
Amritpal Singh, who has been accused of separatism, has been in jail in Assam ever since he was arrested from Moga's Rode village in Punjab in 2023. He was later elected to the Lok Sabha from Khadoor Sahib but has not got permission to attend the House. There were reports that he would vote using postal ballot.
Boycott over Punjab floods
But later it came out that Amritpal is among MPs from Punjab who've chosen to boycott the election over the alleged apathy of the central government towards the floods in Punjab.
Another one of those is Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa, the son of Indira Gandhi murder convict Beant Singh, who won from Faridkot in 2024 as an independent candidate.
Former NDA constituent SAD has also announced the boycott, which means former union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal won't be voting either. The party said the people of Punjab are "very upset and angry" with the Centre for holding an election while the state suffers.
{{/usCountry}}Former NDA constituent SAD has also announced the boycott, which means former union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal won't be voting either. The party said the people of Punjab are "very upset and angry" with the Centre for holding an election while the state suffers.
{{/usCountry}}"Almost one third of the state lies submerged under water with houses and crops completely destroyed. It is a man-made tragedy caused by Punjab government's negligence and incompetence. Neither the state government nor the Centre have come forward to help Punjabis in any way," the SAD led by Sukhbir Singh Badal party posted on X.
That means three of Punjab's 13 MPs won't be voting.
BJD wants ‘equal distance’
Odisha's Biju Janata Dal (BJD) led by former chief minister Naveen Patnaik announced that its decision to abstain from vice-presidential election is part of its policy of "maintaining an equal distance" from both the BJP-led NDA and Congress-led INDIA bloc at the national level.
The BJD, which lost power to the BJP in the state last year, has supported the NDA on some issues in the past.
Patnaik's party currently does not have a member in the Lok Sabha, but has seven in the Rajya Sabha.
KCR's party cites ‘farmer anguish’
The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) led by former Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao has also cited an immediate reason — “anguish among the state's farmers due to shortage of urea” — for abstaining.
The BRS has four MPs in the Rajya Sabha; none in the Lok Sabha.
"For the last 20 days, BRS has been warning both state and central governments about the shortage of urea. Yet they have failed to respond. As a mark of protest and in solidarity with 71 lakh Telangana farmers, BRS has decided not to participate in the Vice President election. If NOTA (None of the Above) was an option, we would have chosen it," BRS working president KT Rama Rao said.
Where numbers stood before polling
Ahead of the voting that began on Tuesday morning, NDA candidate CP Radhakrishnan had the numbers to win comfortably.
This was acknowledged by leaders of the INDIA bloc, which has put up retired Supreme Court judge B Sudershan Reddy as the joint opposition candidate.
Radhakrishnan is expected to receive more than 420 votes, well above the majority mark of 391. The INDIA bloc hopes for cross-voting to send out a message. Currently, the Parliament comprises 781 members with some seats vacant.