NDA’s candidate, Harivansh Narayan Singh of the JD(U), was elected Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman on August 9 defeating B K Hariprasad, opposition candidate, and senior Congress leader, by winning 125 votes in the House.
B K Hariprasad received 105 votes.
Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu started the process of the voting by calling for the division of votes in the House.
After the voting, Singh was escorted to his seat and was congratulated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Ghulam Nabi Azad on behalf of the Congress and others.
PM Modi while congratulating Singh said, “He had earlier run a column on how the parliamentarians of the country should work. Little did he know that he will one day be the Deputy Chairperson of the House. We all will benefit from his experience.”
The post of RS Deputy Chairman was lying vacant since the retirement of Pallath Joseph Kurien on July 1.
