Decode Politics: 15 votes were declared invalid in Vice-President election. Why were they rejected?

First, how is the V-P election held?

The Vice-President is chosen by an Electoral College consisting of members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha (both elected and nominated members). As per Article 66 (1) of the Constitution of India, the election of the Vice-President is held in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of a single transferable vote, via a secret ballot.

“Preference can be marked in the international form of Indian numerals, in Roman form, or in the form in any recognised Indian languages… The elector can mark as many preferences as the number of candidates. While the marking of the first preference is compulsory for the ballot paper to be valid, other preferences are optional,” the Election Commission said in a press release issued on August 1, reiterating the rules.

The voters are expected to put the number “1” down against the candidate of their choice. In addition to this, they can mark as many subsequent preferences by writing down figures 2, 3, 4 and so on.

Under the Constitution, the Vice-President “shall not be a member of either House of Parliament or of a House of the Legislature of any State”. If a member of any of these Houses is elected to the post, “he shall be deemed to have vacated his seat in that House on the date on which he enters upon his office as Vice-President”.

What are the grounds on which the Returning Officer can reject a ballot paper as invalid?

There are four main grounds for rejection of votes as per rules laid out by the Election Commission.

They are:

Ground 1: The figure 1 is not marked.

Ground 2: The figure 1 is marked against the name of more than one candidate or is marked in a manner which renders it doubtful as to which candidate it is intended to apply to.

Ground 3: The figure 1 and some other figure is marked against the name of a candidate.

Ground 4: Any mark is made by which the elector may be identified.

The rules also say that a ballot paper may be invalidated if the preference is noted in words, instead of figures.

A postal ballot may be rejected if the signature of the elector on the declaration and the attestation form received with the ballot paper is not duly attested by the authority specified in such form (who is normally the officer-in-charge of the jail or the place of detention).

Why were 15 votes rejected on Tuesday?

A source present in the election room in the Parliament Complex on Tuesday said that the 15 members made all four mistakes between them in their ballot papers. Some of them, the source claimed, did not write their preference “1” inside the box square printed against the names of candidates.

A few “ticked” the square instead of writing the number “1”, while some used “one” instead of the number to indicate their preference.

There were also instances of first preference being marked in the box against both candidates.

Have there been such instances earlier?

When the NDA’s Jagdeep Dhankhar was declared winner in the V-P polls in August 2022, 15 votes were found to be invalid too. Dhankhar, who had clinched 528 votes, defeated Opposition nominee Margaret Alva, who bagged 182 votes.

In August 2017, when the NDA’s M Venkaiah Naidu was elected as the 13th V-P by defeating Opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi by a huge margin, 11 votes were found to be invalid. Naidu secured 516 votes while Gandhi got 244 votes.