Vice Presidential election 2017: NDA asks MPs to practice dummy voting to rule out possibility of invalid votes

New Delhi: A day before casting their votes in the vice-presidential election, NDA MPs will take part in a dummy voting exercise on Friday as the ruling alliance works to minimise the possibility of any vote going invalid. [caption id=“attachment_3850061” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Venkaiah Naidu. PTI[/caption] The NDA MPs will also be joined by the lawmakers from the AIADMK, the TRS and the YSRCP, three regional parties supporting the candidature of M Venkaiah Naidu, the BJP sources said. Naidu will also address them, seeking their votes, they said. The dummy exercise will be followed by a dinner and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to join the MPs then. He will also speak to them, the sources said. During the presidential poll, 77 votes in total were declared invalid and 21 of them belonged to parliamentarians, hailing from various parties. Both Modi and Shah in their addresses to BJP members have emphasised on voting correctly to rule out any vote going invalid. Unlike the presidential election in which the electoral college also includes MLAs, only MPs of the two Houses can vote in the vice-presidential poll. Naidu, the NDA candidate, is all but certain to win the election in which the opposition parties have put up Gopalkrishna Gandhi as their nominee against the former BJP president and Union minister. The current NDA strength in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha is 337 and 80 respectively. The AIADMK, the TRS and the YSRCP have together 50 and 17 MPs in the two respective Houses. The electoral college comprises 790 members and parties with 484 members have already pledged their support to Naidu, who is also expected to be backed by several nominated members.