A shocking case of forgery has emerged in connection with the vice-presidential election, which is scheduled to take place on September 9.
A candidate, identified as Joemon Joseph from Kerala, allegedly
falsified the signatures of several MPs on his nomination form, falsely representing them as having supported his candidature.
Joseph’s papers included 22 proposers and 22 seconders, with names and signatures of MPs from both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, including Raghav Chadha, Sanjay Singh, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Swati Maliwal, Asaduddin Owaisi, Sasmit Patra, and even YSRCP MP Mithun Reddy, who is currently in jail.
The matter came to light when the MPs were contacted by the election office to cross-check whether they had extended support to 45-year-old Joseph, said to be a resident of Kerala, for the next month’s election. Expressing surprise, many MPs said they did not even know the person and never signed nomination papers.
The authorities received 68 nominations from 46 candidates by August 21, the last to file papers for the vice-presidential elections. Out of these, 28 nominations from 19 candidates were rejected at the initial stage.
The remaining nominations from 27 candidates were further scrutinised and only two nominations were found valid—that of CP Radhakrishnan (BJP-led NDA’s candidate) and B Sudarshan Reddy (opposition INDIA bloc’s candidate). Both candidates had submitted four nomination papers each.
The election for the Vice President of India will see a direct contest between Justice Reddy, backed by the INDIA bloc, and NDA’s nominee C P Radhakrishnan. The polling for the Vice Presidential election would take place on September 9, with counting to take place the same day.
The Vice Presidential post fell vacant after Jagdeep Dhankhar resigned on the first day of the Monsoon Session of Parliament on July 21, citing health reasons.
The VP is elected by an electoral college, which consists of MPs from both houses of Parliament. The elections of the Vice President are governed by the provisions under Articles 64 and 68 of the Constitution. The Election Commission notifies the VP polls by the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Act, 1952.
As per Article 66(1) of the Constitution of India, the election of the Vice President shall be held by the system of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote, and the voting at such election shall be by secret ballot.
