How the Vice-President of India is elected, and what the office does

Article 66(1) says the Vice-President is elected by an electoral college of the members of both Houses of Parliament. Unlike the presidential election, the word "elected" does not appear, so the 12 members nominated to the Rajya Sabha vote as well, and State Assemblies play no part. The vote is by proportional representation with the single transferable vote, and by secret ballot. Each member's vote has a value of 1, as the Election Commission states.

Article 66(3) requires a candidate to be a citizen of India, to have completed 35 years, and to be qualified for election as a member of the Council of States (the Rajya Sabha). A holder of an office of profit under the Union or a State cannot stand, except that the President, Vice-President, a Governor or a Union or State minister is not counted as holding one. The Vice-President cannot be a member of either House of Parliament or of a State legislature, and a member elected to the office is deemed to have vacated the seat on taking office (Article 66(2)).

A nomination paper needs at least 20 electors as proposers and 20 as seconders, a certified copy of the candidate's entry in the parliamentary electoral roll, and a deposit of Rs 15,000. A candidate may file up to four papers, and an elector can back only one candidate. As in the presidential election, the deposit is forfeited if the candidate gets no more than one-sixth of the votes needed to win. The Returning Officer is the Secretary General of the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha by rotation; in 2025 it was the Rajya Sabha's.

The mechanics match the presidential poll, except that each ballot counts as one vote. Electors mark preferences in figures with the pen the Commission supplies; only the first preference is compulsory. The Commission says the ballot is secret, with no open voting, and parties cannot issue a whip to MPs for this election.

On the 2025 figures (767 voted, 15 invalid), there were 752 valid ballots, which gives a quota of 377 under that rule. That arithmetic is ours, not an official figure. The Election Commission's release on 10 September 2025 records C.P. Radhakrishnan as declared elected on 9 September 2025, as the fifteenth Vice-President. We give no vote tally because we did not fetch one from an official source.

The Vice-President is ex officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha (Articles 64 and 89) and cannot hold any other office of profit. The Chairman does not vote in the first instance but has a casting vote if the votes are equal (Article 100(1)). When the Chairman's office is vacant, or the Vice-President is acting as President, the Deputy Chairman performs the duties (Article 91). If the President's office falls vacant, the Vice-President acts as President until a new President takes office (Article 65).

The term is five years, and the Vice-President continues until a successor enters office. The Vice-President may resign by writing to the President, and can be removed by a resolution of the Rajya Sabha passed by a majority of all its then members and agreed to by the Lok Sabha, after at least 14 days' notice (Article 67). The Vice-President takes an oath before the President (Article 69).

When the office falls vacant by death, resignation, removal or otherwise, Article 68(2) says the election is held "as soon as possible" after the vacancy, and the winner gets a full five-year term. Unlike Article 62(2) for the President, it names no six-month limit. In 2025 the Commission recorded that the office had fallen vacant by a Ministry of Home Affairs notification dated 22 July 2025; it announced the schedule on 1 August and the poll was held on 9 September. Disputes go to the Supreme Court under Article 71, on a petition within 30 days by a candidate or by 10 or more electors.