​Making a point: On the election of the Vice-President

The BJP-led NDA and the Congress-led Opposition parties have announced their respective candidates for the post of the Vice-President of India, which fell vacant after the abrupt and intriguing resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar on July 21, 2025, setting the stage for a fresh face-off. The numbers are foretold and there is no surprise in store about the outcome. However, this is a significant ideological battle, and both sides see it as such. The NDA’s candidate, C.P. Radhakrishnan, is a veteran RSS activist from Tamil Nadu, who has served as a two-term Member of Parliament, from 1998 to 2004. He is the Governor of Maharashtra. The INDIA bloc parties have chosen B. Sudershan Reddy, a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India, born and raised in undivided Andhra Pradesh. The NDA has a majority and is on a drive to canvas additional unattached individual voters and parties such as the BJD and the BRS. The YSRCP, bitterly opposed to the TDP, the NDA’s partner, in Andhra Pradesh, has pledged its support to Mr. Radhakrishnan. Justice Reddy’s candidacy has set off some regionalist political posturing in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, while Mr. Radhakrishnan’s has caused the same in Tamil Nadu. On this count, the INDIA bloc managed to push back the NDA’s attempt to put the DMK on the defensive ahead of the State Assembly election. The BJP hopes that Mr. Radhakrishnan’s elevation will gain it some mileage in the Assembly election.

The political messaging cannot be clearer. By offering the second-highest office in the country to a life-long adherent of Hindutva, the BJP has fastened its ties with its mother ship, the RSS. Mr. Radhakrishnan’s profile is in stark contrast with Mr. Dhankhar, who was a late entrant into the Sangh Parivar and failed to fit in. The BJP has used state power, which it controls, in a systematic and effective manner to advance Hindutva. Numerous personality clashes notwithstanding, these shared convictions hold the Sangh Parivar together. Not only has the BJP managed to hold its existing partners firmly behind its candidate but it has also managed to win over the YSRCP. As for the Congress and the Opposition, Justice Reddy’s candidacy is an assertion of its resistance to the Parivar and an attempt to amplify their social justice slogan. Justice Reddy recently headed the 11-member independent expert working group that had analysed and interpreted the data collected during the Telangana Congress government’s Socio, Economic, Education, Employment, Political and Caste (SEEEPC) Survey 2024. They also hope to use this contest as a rallying cry for the Opposition to consolidate against the BJP.