Hamid Ansari gets second term as Vice President

New Delhi: On expected lines, UPA candidate Hamid Ansari on Tuesday won the race for Vice President for the second time, beating NDA candidate Jaswant Singh with a huge margin.

Ansari got 490 votes, where as Singh got only 238 votes. 736 of the 787 MPs in both Houses cast their votes. Out of 787, eight votes were invalid.

Voting for the Vice President began at 10 am and continued till 5 pm.

75-year-old Ansari, a career diplomat is the second Vice President to get the send term after late philosopher-statesman S Radhakrishnan.

The Vice President is elected by members of an electoral college consisting of Members of Both Houses of Parliament in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote.

Nominated members of the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha are also entitled to take part in the election.