India votes today to elect its next Vice President, nearly two months after Jagdeep Dhankhar stepped down from the post citing health reasons. The contest is between Maharashtra Governor CP Radhakrishnan, fielded by the ruling NDA, and former Supreme Court judge B Sudershan Reddy, backed by the opposition INDIA bloc.

Polling began at 10 AM and continued until 5 PM at the new Parliament building’s Vasudha Hall — a first for the vice-presidential election. Counting began after 6 PM.

The vice president is elected by an electoral college made up of 788 MPs from both the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. This includes 245 Rajya Sabha members (including 12 nominated ones) and 543 Lok Sabha members. However, with a few vacancies, the current voting strength is 781.

Three regional parties — BJD, BRS, and SAD — have chosen to sit out of this election. Together, they account for 12 MPs. Two independent MPs, Amritpal Singh and Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa, are also boycotting the vote. That brings the total number of likely abstentions to 14, meaning a candidate needs 384 votes to win.

The numbers currently give the NDA an edge. Excluding the YSR Congress Party, the NDA has the backing of 425 MPs. Meanwhile, the opposition INDIA bloc has 324 MPs behind Reddy. So while the NDA is in the lead, the margin may end up being narrow.

Results of the election will be officially announced on Tuesday.