VP election: Oppn MPs to participate in mock poll, Kharge to host dinner on Monday
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New Delhi (PTI): Opposition MPs would be briefed on Monday on the procedure to vote in the September 9 vice presidential polls, and will be hosted for dinner by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge the same evening, sources in the INDIA bloc said on Sunday.
They said a 'mock poll' would be conducted in the Central Hall of the Samvidhan Sadan at around 2:30 PM on Monday after the briefing on the procedure to vote in the vice presidential polls.
At around 7:30 PM, Congress president Kharge will host a dinner for the opposition MPs at the Parliament annexe, the sources said.
It is a direct contest between ruling NDA nominee C P Radhakrishnan and joint opposition candidate B Sudershan Reddy on September 9. Both candidates this time hail from southern India, with Radhakrishnan from Tamil Nadu and Reddy from Telangana.
The vice-presidential election has been described by the Opposition as an ideological battle, even as the numbers are stacked in favour of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
Rajya Sabha Secretary General P C Mody, who is the returning officer for the vice-presidential election, has said that the polling will take place on Tuesday in Room No. F-101, Vasudha, Parliament House.
The polling will commence at 10 AM and close at 5 PM on September 9.
"The electoral college for election to the Office of the Vice-President of India consists of the Members of both Houses of Parliament. The nominated Members of Rajya Sabha are also eligible to be included in the Electoral College and, therefore, are entitled to participate in the election.
"The polling arrangements in Parliament House are being made by Shri P.C. Mody, the Returning Officer for the Vice-Presidential Election, 2025, and Secretary-General, Rajya Sabha," the statement from Rajya Sabha secretariat said.
"The counting of votes will commence at 6 PM on the same day and the result will be declared immediately thereafter," it said.
While Radhakrishnan is a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) veteran from Tamil Nadu and the governor of Maharashtra currently, Reddy is a former Supreme Court judge.
Reddy (79), who retired from the apex court in July 2011, is a veteran jurist known for several landmark judgments criticising the then Union government for showing slackness in probing black-money cases. He had also declared Salwa Judum, appointed by the Chhattisgarh government to fight Naxals, as unconstitutional.
As an apex court judge, Reddy ordered the formation of a special investigation team to take all steps for bringing back unaccounted monies unlawfully kept in bank accounts abroad.
For the 17th vice-presidential election, the electoral college consists of 233 elected members of the Rajya Sabha (five seats are currently vacant), 12 nominated members of the Rajya Sabha and 543 elected members of the Lok Sabha (one seat is currently vacant).
The electoral college comprises a total of 788 members (781 presently).
The Congress-led opposition is projecting Reddy as a consistent and courageous champion of social, economic and political justice. Reddy has had a long and eminent legal career, including as a judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, the chief justice of the Gauhati High Court and a judge of the Supreme Court. He also led the committee that undertook the caste survey in Telangana.
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Media dinner shooting suspect wrote about targeting of administration officials, Trump says
Washington (AP): The man accused of trying to storm the ballroom at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner with guns and knives had written about targeting Trump administration officials, and his family raised concerns with law enforcement before the event, President Donald Trump said Sunday in an interview on Fox News Channel.
The accused gunman's family had alerted police in Connecticut, Trump said, revealing new details about a chaotic encounter that disrupted one of Washington's glitziest annual events the night before.
The suspect, identified by law enforcement officials as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, was expected to face criminal charges on Monday from the Justice Department, whose acting leader, Todd Blanche, said the suspect travelled by train from California and checked in as a guest days earlier at the Washington hotel where the Saturday night gala dinner was held with its typically tight security.
Law enforcement officials who have interviewed Allen's relatives, examined the gunman's electronic devices and his writings preliminarily believe he intended to target administration members in attendance at the dinner.
He attempted to charge into the cavernous ballroom at the Washington Hilton but was tackled to the ground in a violent scene that resulted in shots being fired, Trump being hurried off the stage and guests ducking for cover beneath their tables.
“It does appear that he did in fact set out to target folks who work in the administration, likely including the president,” Blanche told NBC's “Meet the Press.”
The suspect is believed to have purchased the two firearms he carried within the last couple of years, Blanche said. He is not being cooperative and is expected to face multiple charges on Monday.
Video posted by Trump showed the suspect running past security barricades as Secret Service agents ran toward him. One officer was shot in a bullet-resistant vest but was recovering, officials said. The gunman was taken into custody and was not injured, but was being evaluated at a hospital, police said.
“He failed,” Blanche said on CBS's “Face the Nation.” “Law enforcement did their jobs.”
Authorities believe the suspect fired the shot that hit the Secret Service officer, who is expected to make a full recovery, Blanche said.
“He's going to be great, he's going to be fine, and thank God he was wearing a bulletproof vest,” Blanche said Sunday on ABC's “This Week.”
Social media posts that appear to match the suspect show he is a highly educated tutor and amateur video game developer.
A May 2025 profile photo of Allen appears to match the appearance of the man in a photo of the alleged attacker being taken into custody that was posted Saturday night by Trump.
The photo, posted to the social networking site LinkedIn, shows him in a cap and gown after graduating with a master's degree in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills.
Allen earned a bachelor's degree in 2017 in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He listed his involvement there in a Christian student fellowship and a campus group that battled with Nerf guns.
The shooting at the security barricades happened minutes after the event got underway.
The Secret Service and other authorities swarmed the room as guests ducked under tables by the hundreds. Gasps echoed through the ballroom as guests realised something was happening. Hundreds of journalists immediately got on phones to call in information.
“Out of the way, sir!” someone yelled. Others yelled to duck. From one corner, a “God Bless America” chant began as the president was escorted offstage. Outside the hotel, members of the National Guard and other authorities flooded the area as helicopters circled overhead.
After an initial attempt to resume the event, it was scrapped for the night and will be rescheduled.
Trump was unusually conciliatory after what he saw as a third attempt on his life in less than two years. He suggested that his personal politics had made him a repeated target, but he also called for unity and bipartisan healing in an increasingly violent world.
“It's always shocking when something like this happens. Happened to me, a little bit. And that never changes,” Trump told reporters in a hastily organised news conference at the White House late Saturday.
