The Vice-President holds two very different jobs at once: constitutional successor to the President, and Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. No other office in India mixes the executive and the legislature quite like this.
Ex-officio: Holding a role automatically, because of another office — the VP chairs the Rajya Sabha simply by being VP.
Acting President: A temporary stand-in role during the President’s short absence — it ends the moment the President returns.
Succession: Permanently stepping into the President’s office after a real vacancy — death, resignation, or removal.
Table of Precedence: India’s official ceremonial ranking of public offices — separate from who actually holds real governing power.
- Articles 63-71: Two Jobs, One Office
- The Electoral College: A Wider Circle Than the President’s
- Resigning “Sideways,” and How Removal Actually Works
- Precedence, and an Apprenticeship for the Presidency
- Every Vice-President of India, 1952 to Now
- In the News: A New Vice-President, One Year In
- How Exams Test This
1Articles 63-71: Two Jobs, One Office
Must Know
- The Vice-President is defined in Articles 63 to 71, in the same Part of the Constitution that covers the President. Know this exact range — it’s one of the most-asked facts about the office.
- Article 63 creates the office. Article 64 makes the VP the ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, and blocks them from holding any other paid office.
- Article 66 sets eligibility: citizen, at least 35 years old, elected by an Electoral College of Parliament.
- Article 65 covers a second, very different role: stepping in as President. This can be permanent, if the President’s office falls vacant for good. Or it can be temporary, just while the President is briefly away or unwell.
So is “acting President” the same as actually becoming President? No — and mixing these two up is one of the most common exam traps on this whole topic.
- If the President dies, resigns, or is removed, the Vice-President steps in as President for real — not as a stand-in.
- If the President is just temporarily unavailable, the VP only acts as President. The moment the real President returns, that acting role simply ends. Nothing about the office changes permanently.
True or False: as Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, the Vice-President votes on every bill, just like any other member.
2The Electoral College: A Wider Circle Than the President’s
Must Know
This is the single sharpest contrast with the President’s election — and exams love testing exactly this difference.
- The VP’s Electoral College is made up of all members of both Houses of Parliament — this includes nominated members too, not just elected ones.
- Compare that to the President’s election, where nominated members are specifically left out. The VP’s rule runs the opposite way.
- State legislatures play no role at all in electing the Vice-President. This is a Parliament-only vote, unlike the President’s much broader electoral college.
True or False: a nominated Member of Parliament is excluded from voting in the Vice-Presidential election, the same as in the Presidential election.
One more frequently tested point: there’s no bar on re-election. A Vice-President can serve any number of five-year terms, exactly like the President.
Think it through. Nominated MPs vote for the Vice-President but not for the President. Why treat the two elections differently?
Show the explanation
Because the two offices connect to different parts of government. The President’s election is meant to reflect the whole country, MPs and MLAs together, so it deliberately keeps out members who were never chosen by any voter. The Vice-President’s main job, by contrast, is chairing the Rajya Sabha — a House that already includes nominated members as full, working members. Leaving them out of the VP vote would be strange, since they sit in the very body the VP will end up running. The rule fits each office’s real job, rather than applying one single standard to both.
3Resigning “Sideways,” and How Removal Actually Works
Good to Know
- A Vice-President resigns by writing directly to the President. The President, in turn, resigns to the Vice-President. The two top offices resign sideways to each other, not both to some third authority.
- Removing a Vice-President needs only one thing: a resolution passed in the Rajya Sabha by an absolute majority. The Lok Sabha then has to agree to it too. There’s no separate impeachment trial, unlike the President’s more elaborate Article 61 process.
- No Vice-President has ever actually been removed this way. Every exit from the office so far has come from finishing a term, resigning, or moving up to become President.
Think it through. The President’s removal needs a detailed, two-thirds impeachment process. The Vice-President’s removal needs only a simple Rajya Sabha resolution. Why does the Constitution make removing the VP so much easier?
Show the explanation
Because the two offices don’t carry the same weight in practice. The President is the formal head of the entire Union, the final signature on nearly every major government act. Making that office hard to remove protects the whole system from being destabilised over a political dispute. The Vice-President’s core day-to-day job, by contrast, is running debate in the Rajya Sabha — closer to a Speaker’s role than a Head of State’s. Parliament, which the VP works most closely with, is given a simpler, faster way to remove them if things go wrong. The lighter process fits a job that’s constitutionally senior, but functionally closer to Parliament’s own affairs.
4Precedence, and an Apprenticeship for the Presidency
Great to Know
- India’s official Table of Precedence ranks the Vice-President second, right after the President. That puts the VP ahead of the Prime Minister. The order to remember: President, then Vice-President, then Prime Minister, then Governors within their own states, then the Speaker.
- This often surprises people, since the Prime Minister actually runs the government day to day. Precedence reflects constitutional rank, not real political power.
- Chairing the Rajya Sabha for a full term gives a Vice-President real, hands-on experience with Parliament and lawmaking. That turns out to be genuine preparation for the Presidency.
- This isn’t just theory. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Zakir Husain both moved directly from Vice-President to President — a real, recurring pattern, not just a design intention.
5Every Vice-President of India, 1952 to Now
Good to Know
India has had 15 Vice-Presidents since the office began in 1952. Terms don’t all follow a clean pattern — several ended early, through resignation, elevation to President, or a switch in the usual August handover date.
| # | Vice-President | In office |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan | 1952–1962 |
| 2 | Zakir Husain | 1962–1967 |
| 3 | V.V. Giri | 1967–1969 |
| 4 | Gopal Swarup Pathak | 1969–1974 |
| 5 | B.D. Jatti | 1974–1979 |
| 6 | Mohammad Hidayatullah | 1979–1984 |
| 7 | R. Venkataraman | 1984–1987 |
| 8 | Shankar Dayal Sharma | 1987–1992 |
| 9 | K.R. Narayanan | 1992–1997 |
| 10 | Krishan Kant | 1997–2002 (died in office) |
| 11 | Bhairon Singh Shekhawat | 2002–2007 |
| 12 | Mohammad Hamid Ansari | 2007–2017 |
| 13 | Venkaiah Naidu | 2017–2022 |
| 14 | Jagdeep Dhankhar | 2022–2025 (resigned) |
| 15 | C.P. Radhakrishnan | 2025–present |
- Five Vice-Presidents went on to become President: Radhakrishnan, Zakir Husain, Venkataraman, Shankar Dayal Sharma, and K.R. Narayanan.
- Krishan Kant died in office in 2002 — the only Vice-President to do so.
- Jagdeep Dhankhar is the only Vice-President to resign mid-term for reasons other than moving to the Presidency, stepping down in July 2025.
6In the News: A New Vice-President, One Year In
Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar resigned on 21 July 2025, citing health reasons. He wrote his resignation letter to President Droupadi Murmu, using exactly the resignation channel covered above. He stepped down about two years before his five-year term was due to end.
C.P. Radhakrishnan was then elected and sworn in as India’s 15th Vice-President, on 12 September 2025. He is the current officeholder. Before this, he served as Governor of Maharashtra, from July 2024 until his election. He has now completed his first year in office. In September 2026, his duties included a two-day visit to Assam and hosting the Aga Khan on a state visit — routine ceremonial and diplomatic work that comes with the job.
7How Exams Test This
CDS I 2026
Asked how many of Radhakrishnan, Zakir Husain, and Neelam Sanjiva Reddy also served as Vice-President. The answer: 2 — Reddy came from being Lok Sabha Speaker instead.
CDS I 2021
Tested whether a VP can be re-elected. They can — there’s no bar, exactly like the President.
CDS I 2017
Tested the electoral college’s exact make-up, and confirmed the Supreme Court handles both Presidential and Vice-Presidential election disputes.
CDS II 2019
Tested the “sideways” resignation rule — the President resigns to the VP, and the VP resigns to the President.
NDA & NA I 2026
Tested the Table of Precedence order among the VP, Governors, the PM, and the Speaker.
Quick Q&A
- What are the Vice-President’s two main roles? Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, and constitutional successor to the President.
- Do nominated MPs vote for the Vice-President? Yes — unlike the President’s election, which leaves nominated members out.
- How is a Vice-President removed from office? A Rajya Sabha resolution by absolute majority, agreed to by the Lok Sabha — no separate impeachment trial.
- Who is India’s current Vice-President? C.P. Radhakrishnan, the 15th Vice-President, in office since 12 September 2025.
MCQ on Test Yourself
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Related reading
- The President of India — the office the Vice-President can step into.
- The PM, Council of Ministers and Attorney General — the office that actually runs the government day to day.
- The Executive: PMO, Cabinet and Central Secretariat — how the rest of the Union executive is built.
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