Vice-presidential polls: 5 candidates, including ‘Ramayani Chaiwala’, file papers on day one

New Delhi, July 5 (PTI): Five people, including one who goes by the alias “Ramayani Chaiwala”, filed papers on Tuesday, the first day of the nomination process for the August 6 vice-presidential election.

The nomination papers of one candidate were rejected for failing to furnish a mandatory document.

July 19 is the last date for filing nominations.

According to the details available with the office of the returning officer, K Padmarajan of Salem district in Tamil Nadu, Pareshkumar Nanubhai Mulani from Ahmedabad, Hosmath Vijayanand from Bengaluru and Naidugari Rajasekhar Srimukhalingam from Andhra Pradesh have filed their nominations for the vice-presidential polls.

Anand Singh Khushwaha from Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh, who goes by the alias “Ramayani Chaiwala”, was also among those who filed nomination papers at the returning officer’s office in Parliament. Though Khushwaha’s papers were accepted, he did not submit the security deposit of Rs 15,000.

The papers of Srimukhalingam were rejected as he failed to submit a certified copy of the entry relating to the candidate in the voters’ list of the Lok Sabha constituency in which he or she is residing.

The four other nominations will come up for scrutiny on July 20. These nominations are set to be rejected as they were not supported by 20 parliamentarians as proposers and 20 other as seconders.

For a successful nomination as a candidate in the vice-presidential election, a nominee needs 20 MPs as proposers and 20 others as seconders.

The term of incumbent M Venkaiah Naidu ends on August 10 and the next vice president will take oath on August 11.

The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has a clear edge in the election, in which the members of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, including the nominated ones, are eligible to vote.

The political parties are yet to name their candidates for the election.

The vice president is also the chairperson of the Rajya Sabha.

The electoral college in the vice-presidential polls comprises a total of 788 members of both houses of Parliament. Since all the electors are members of Parliament, the value of the vote of each MP would be the same — one — the Election Commission (EC) said in a statement issued on June 29.

The election is held in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of a single transferable vote and the voting is held by secret ballots.

There is no concept of open voting in the election and showing the ballots to anyone under any circumstances in the case of presidential and vice-presidential elections is prohibited, the EC had cautioned, adding that the parties cannot issue a whip to its MPs in the matter of voting.

The nomination paper of a candidate has to be subscribed by at least 20 electors as proposers and by at least 20 other electors as seconders. An elector can subscribe to only one nomination paper of a candidate as either a proposer or a seconder.

A candidate can file a maximum of four nomination papers. The security deposit for the election is INR 15,000.

Unlike the presidential polls where the voting takes place at multiple locations as the elected MLAs, not the nominated members, also form part of the electoral college, in the vice-presidential election, the voting takes place in the Parliament House.