Union Minister Nitin Gadkari was seen with Congress President and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, during the vice-presidential election at the Parliament premises in New Delhi on Tuesday, September 9, 2025. Voting is underway for a direct contest between the NDA’s nominee, C.P. Radhakrishnan, and the Opposition’s candidate, B. Sudershan Reddy. The BJP-led alliance is expected to have a clear edge in the poll, which was necessitated by the sudden resignation of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accompanied by Union Ministers Kiren Rijiju, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Jitendra Singh, and L. Murugan, cast his vote earlier in the day. Polling, which began at 10 a.m. in the new Parliament building, will continue until 5 p.m., with counting scheduled to start at 6 p.m. and results expected later in the evening. Meanwhile, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) of Odisha, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) of Punjab, and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) of Telangana have announced that they will abstain from the election — a decision that is unlikely to impact the overall arithmetic of the poll.