Who'll be India's next vice president, NDA's Radhakrishnan or the INDIA bloc's Reddy? How do numbers stack up?

The stage is set for a direct contest between ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) nominee CP Radhakrishnan and INDIA bloc candidate B Sudershan Reddy for Tuesday's vice presidential election.

The BJP-led alliance has a clear edge in the election scheduled to begin at 10 AM on 9 September. Jagdeep Dhankhar's sudden resignation in July, citing health reasons, necessitated the election.

Members of both Houses of Parliament will cast their votes in the Parliament House in the voting that will run until 5 PM on Tuesday. Counting votes will begin at 6 PM, and the results will be announced late evening.

Members of Parliament are not bound by party whips to vote in the vice presidential election, which takes place under a secret ballot system.

The BJP-led NDA and the Congress-led opposition grouping held separate meetings with their respective MPs on poll eve to sensitise them about the election process and also held mock polls.

The MPs will be handed out ballot papers containing the names of the two contesting candidates and will have to mark their preference by writing the figure '1' opposite the name of the candidate of their choice.

"The figures may be marked in the international form of Indian numerals or in the Roman form or in the form used in any Indian language but shall not be indicated in words," the rules of the vice presidential election state.

The present strength of the electoral college is 781, as six seats are vacant in the Rajya Sabha and one in the Lok Sabha. This puts the majority mark at 391.

With 422 MPs backing Radhakrishnan, including 293 from the Lok Sabha and 129 from the Rajya Sabha, the NDA’s path to victory appears almost certain.

The INDIA bloc’s tally stands at around 300, including parties like the Congress, DMK, Shiv Sena (UBT), Samajwadi Party, CPI(M), RJD, AAP and others.

Among the political parties that are not part of the ruling or the opposition camps, the YSRCP, with 11 members in Parliament, has decided to support the NDA nominee, while the BRS and the BJD have decided to abstain from voting in the election. The BRS has four MPs in the Rajya Sabha, while the BJD has 7 MPs in the Rajya Sabha.

The issue of Reddy's Salwa Judum judgement spiced up the otherwise staid campaign for the vice presidential election with Home Minister Amit Shah claiming that the 2011 verdict was a setback to the efforts to fight Maoism in Chhattisgarh.

The opposition has described the vice-presidential poll as an ideological battle, even as the numbers are stacked in favour of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

The NDA projects Radhakrishnan as an untainted leader with rich political and administrative experience for the vice president's office and maintains that these qualities would also prove useful as the chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

Radhakrishnan (67) served as a two-term member of the Lok Sabha from Coimbatore during Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's tenure and later led the saffron party in Tamil Nadu.

Reddy (79), who retired from the apex court in July 2011, is a veteran jurist known for several landmark judgments criticising the then Union government for showing slackness in probing black-money cases.

(With inputs from agencies)