List of vice presidents of India

The Vice President of India is the second highest constitutional office in the Government of India after the President. In accordance with Article 65 of the Constitution of India, the vice president discharges the functions of the president when a contingency arises due to the resignation, removal, death, impeachment or the inability of the president to discharge their functions. They are also the ex officio chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India.[1][2]

The vice president is elected by an electoral college consisting of all the members of both houses of the Parliament in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote via a secret ballot conducted by the Election Commission of India. Once elected the vice president continues in office for a five-year term, but can continue in office irrespective of the expiry of the term, until a successor assumes office.[3] They can be removed by a resolution passed by an effective majority in the Rajya Sabha.[4] They are responsible for the protection of the rights and privileges of the members of the Council of States. They also decide whether a bill introduced in the Rajya Sabha is a financial bill or not.[1]

There have been 13 vice presidents since the inception of the post in 1950. The first vice president of India, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, took oath at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 13 May 1952.[5] He later served as the president.[6] Following the death of Zakir Hussain in 1969, V. V. Giri resigned from the post of vice president to contest the presidential election and got elected.[7] Out of 13 vice presidents, six of them later went on to become the president.[7] Krishna Kant has been the only one to die during his tenure.[8] On 11 August 2017, Venkaiah Naidu was sworn in as the 13th vice president of India.[9]

Vice presidents of India

This list is numbered based on vice presidents elected after winning an Indian Vice Presidential election. The Vice President of India does not represent any political party. The colours used in the table indicate the following:

Colour key

  Vice President was an Independent candidate (5)

  Vice President was a candidate of Indian National Congress (INC) (5)

  Vice President was a candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) (2)

  Vice President was a candidate of the Janata Dal (JD) (1)

Key

• † Died in office

No.	Name (birth–death)[10]	Portrait	Elected (% votes)	Took office	Left office	Term (in years)	President(s)	Party
1	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888–1975)		1952 (Unopposed)	13 May 1952	12 May 1957	10	Rajendra Prasad		Independent
			1957 (Unopposed)	13 May 1957	12 May 1962
2	Zakir Husain (1897–1969)		1962 (97.59)	13 May 1962	12 May 1967	5	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan		Independent
3	V. V. Giri (1894–1980)		1967 (71.45)	13 May 1967	3 May 1969	2	Zakir Husain		Independent
4	Gopal Swarup Pathak (1896–1982)		1969 (49.9)	31 August 1969	30 August 1974	5	V. V. Giri (1969–1974) Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (1974)		Independent
5	B. D. Jatti (1912–2002)		1974 (78.70)	31 August 1974	30 August 1979	5	Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (1974–1977) Neelam Sanjiva Reddy (1977–1979)		Indian National Congress
6	Mohammad Hidayatullah (1905–1992)		1979 (Unopposed)	31 August 1979	30 August 1984	5	Neelam Sanjiva Reddy (1979–1982) Zail Singh (1982–1984)		Independent
7	R. Venkataraman (1910–2009)		1984 (71.05)	31 August 1984	24 July 1987	3	Zail Singh		Indian National Congress
8	Shankar Dayal Sharma (1918–1999)		1987 (Unopposed)	3 September 1987	24 July 1992	5	R. Venkataraman		Indian National Congress
9	K. R. Narayanan (1921–2005)		1992 (99.86)	21 August 1992	24 July 1997	5	Shankar Dayal Sharma		Indian National Congress
10	Krishan Kant (1927–2002)		1997 (61.76)	21 August 1997	27 July 2002	5	K. R. Narayanan (1997–2002) Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (2002)		Janata Dal
11	Bhairon Singh Shekhawat (1924–2010)		2002 (59.82)	19 August 2002	21 July 2007	5	Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam		Bharatiya Janata Party
12	Mohammad Hamid Ansari (1937–)		2007 (60.51)	11 August 2007	11 August 2012	10	Pratibha Patil (2007–2012) Pranab Mukherjee (2012–2017) Ram Nath Kovind (2017)		Indian National Congress
			2012 (67.31)	11 August 2012	11 August 2017
13	Venkaiah Naidu (1949–)		2017 (67.89)	11 August 2017	Incumbent	—	Ram Nath Kovind		Bharatiya Janata Party

Timeline

See also

• Vice President of India
• President of India
• Prime Minister of India
• Deputy Prime Minister of India
• List of presidents of India
• List of prime ministers of India

References

1. "Powers and responsibilities of Vice President of India". News Nation. 17 July 2017. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
2. Jha, Jitesh (8 August 2017). "Fact Box: Vice President of India". Dainik Jagran. Archived from the original on 5 December 2017. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
3. Relhan, Vibhor (5 August 2017). "Following the elections of the Vice President of India". PRS Legislative Research. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
4. "The Upper House of Indian Parliament". Rajya Sabha. Archived from the original on 7 April 2018. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
5. "From Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan to Venkaiah Naidu: All the Vice Presidents of India". The Times of India. 5 August 2017. Archived from the original on 11 September 2017. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
6. Greenhouse, Linda (17 April 1975). "Radhakrishnan of India, Philosopher, Dead at 86". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 12 December 2018. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
7. "Venkaiah Naidu vs Gopalkrishna Gandhi: 6 vice-presidents who went on to become presidents". India Today. 18 July 2017. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
8. Jafri, Syed Amin (27 July 2002). "Krishan Kant is first vice-president to die in office". Rediff.com. Archived from the original on 16 December 2018. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
9. "Venkaiah Naidu sworn in as Vice-President". The Hindu. 11 August 2017. Archived from the original on 9 February 2014. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
10. "Former Vice Presidents". Vice President of India. Archived from the original on 30 August 2018. Retrieved 2 March 2019.

External links

• Vice-President of India (official website)