Parliament cast their vote in the Vice Presidential election today in which the UPA Presidential nominee Hamid Ansari appears all set to come out victorious against NDA's Jaswant Singh.
47 out of the total 787 MPs in both Houses did not cast their votes, who include ailing Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh who is admitted in a Chennai Hospital.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said 21 members from BJD, 11 from TDP, 6 from Congress and supporting parties, including Deshmukh, and two nominated members did not cast their votes.
Others who did not vote include 2 each from BJP, AGP, RSP and TRS and Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, one of the two members of YSR Congress.
BJP members Shatrughan Sinha was sick while Dilip Singh Judev could not come as his mother was not well. Trinamool Congress members Kakoli Dastidar and Kabir Suman were abroad. So was SP member Brij Bhushan Singh.
Out of the total 790 members of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha that form the electoral college for Vice Presidential election, 3 are vacant with Pranab Mukherjee becoming President, Vijay Bahuguna Chief Minister of Uttarakhand and the election of BJP MP J Shanta having been set aside by a High Court.
Brisk polling was witnessed with 600 electors casting their votes by 1:00 PM. After polling began at 10:00 AM. (more)
