Jagdeep Dhankar is India's 14th Vice President

In the election held on Saturday, BJP-led NDA candidate bagged 528 votes against Alva's 182.

The Vice President is also the ex officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

Dhankhar secured 74.36 per cent. He has the highest winning margin in the last six vice presidential elections held since 1997.

The returning officer of the election said of the total 780 electors, 725 cast their ballots but 15 votes were found to be invalid. The voting turnout was 92.94 per cent, he said, adding that a candidate needed 356 votes to get elected.

The Trinamool Congress, which has a total of 36 MPs, including 23 in Lok Sabha, had abstained from the election. However, two of its MPs had cast their ballots. As many as 55 MPs did not vote in the vice presidential election held from 10 am to 5 pm on Saturday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Dhankar tweeting: "I thank all those MPs who have voted for Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar Ji. At a time when India marks Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, we are proud to be having a Kisan Putra Vice President who has excellent legal knowledge and intellectual prowess.
@jdhankhar1."

Margaret Alva too congratulated him after he was declared the winner tweeting: "Congratulations to Mr Dhankhar on being elected Vice President! I would like to thank all the leaders of the Opposition, and MPs from across parties who voted for me in this election. Also, all the volunteers for their selfless service during our short but intense campaign."

Dhankhar received the support of several other non-NDA parties including Naveen Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal, Jaganmohan Reddy's YSR Congress, Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party, Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Akali Dal and the Eknath Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena.