Vice President of India: All You Need To Know About the 2025 Election

Udaipur, Sept 09, 2025: The sudden exit of Jagdeep Dhankar, the 14th Vice President of India from office on July 21, 2025 due to health reasons, suddenly put the nation's limelight on the election of the 15th Vice President of India. The elections for the Vice President took place on September 9, 2025. The polling took place from 10am till 5pm with records showing 98.67% polling. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the first to cast his vote.

Members of both the Houses of Parliament, viz. Lok Sabha (543 members) and Rajya Sabha (245 elected members including 12 nominated members), form the Electoral College (788 members), which cast their votes for electing the Vice President of India. Both the elected as well as nominated members cast their votes. The two candidates for the VP Election 2025 are NDA candidate CP Radhakrishnan and INDIA bloc candidate, Buchireddy Sudershan Reddy. The effective strength of the electoral college will be 781 as 7 seats are vacant (1 in Lok Sabha and 6 in Rajya Sabha). BJD, BRS and SAD which make up for 12 MPs, have decided to abstain from voting. In all, 768 votes were cast of the 781 effective members of both the Houses.

VP Term

The Vice President holds office for a period of 5 years; notwithstanding the expiration of term, the VP can continue holding office till the successor enters office. In the event of resignation, removal or death, the Constitution does not provide for any succession procedure, except fresh election. The term of the 14th VP, Jagdeep Dhankar was cut short in the very middle of his tenure, when he handed in his resignation on July 21 2025, citing 'health reasons'. Since then his exit and the new Vice President candidates have been one of the interesting conversations in political circles.

Vice President Role

The Vice President of India holds the second highest constitutional position in the Indian government, after the President. According to Article 63 of the Constitution of India, the Vice President assumes the duties of the President when situations occur due to resignation, removal, death, impeachment, or the President's incapacity to perform their duties. Additionally, they serve as the ex-officio Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, which is the upper chamber of the Indian Parliament. The VP decides whether a bill introduced in the Rajya Sabha is a financial bill and is also responsible for the protection of the privileges and rights of the members of the Council of States.

History of Vice Presidents of India

Of the 14 previous Vice Presidents of India since the inception of the post in 1950, six went on to become President of India. These include Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1962), Zakir Hussain (1967), VV Giri (1969), Ramaswamy Venkataraman (1987), Shankar Dayal Sharma (1992) and KR Narayanan (1997). BD Jatti and Mohammad Hidayatullah also held the post of President for short terms to fill in the position temporarily. While BD Jatti assumed the role of Acting President on the demise of the then President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (165 days), Hidayatullah briefly took over as Acting President from Giani Zail Singh, when the latter fell ill (35 days). Five of the 14 previous Vice Presidents have been Independent candidates, 3 have been from the BJP,  1 was candidate of the Janta Dal and 6 were candidates of the Indian National Congress.

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