NEWSLINKS US EDITION SOUTH ASIA COLUMNISTS DIARY SPECIALS INTERVIEWS CAPITAL BUZZ REDIFF POLL DEAR REDIFF THE STATES ELECTIONS ARCHIVES SEARCH REDIFF
He defeated the joint opposition candidate Sushil Kumar Shinde by 149 votes.
In an electoral college comprising 788 Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members, Shekhawat polled 454 votes against Shinde's 305.
Shekhawat got about 40 votes more than the strength of the NDA and its supporters, indicating some amount of cross-voting by opposition MPs.
Announcing the result, Lok Sabha Secretary General G C Malhotra, who is the returning officer, said out of 766 votes polled, seven were declared invalid.
Of the 22 MPs who did not vote, 10 belonged to Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress though suspended Trinamool MP Ajit Panja cast his vote in the first hour itself.
MDMK leader Vaiko, booked under POTA by the Tamil Nadu government, was the cynosure of all eyes when he came to Parliament to exercise his franchise.
While Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani and Leader of the Opposition Sonia Gandhi were among the early voters, External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha and thespian Dilip Kumar exercised their franchise towards the fag end of the balloting.
Soon after the result was announced, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee congratulated Shekhawat on his election as Vice President.
Congratulating Shekhawat on his victory, his rival Shinde said he had fought as joint opposition candidate for upholding secularism.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan drove to Shinde's house shortly after the result was announced and was with him for half an hour.
EXTERNAL LINK List of Vice-Presidents
Tell us what you think of this report
