Maharashtra governor and NDA candidate CP Radhakrishnan secured a decisive mandate in the Vice President election against INDIA bloc’s Sudershan Reddy to succeed Jagdeep Dhankar in the post. The 68 year old romped home with a clear majority of 452 first preference votes out of the 754 in which 15 were found to be invalid. Justice Sudershan Reddy managed only 300 votes, which indicates cross voting from Opposition MPs in favour of CP Radhakrishnan. He will be the 15th Vice President of independent India.

The 150 votes margin is however one of the lowest in the Vice-President polls as the previous election saw NDA backed Jagdeep Dhankar sailing to victory with a thumping mandate of 528 Votes against his opponent Margaret Alva who got only 182 votes in her tally. Reports suggest that 15 MPs are expected to have voted for NDA candidate which is a clear indication of cracks in the Opposition ranks as they were boasting of having a support of more than 315 MPs in their favour.

A total of 767 MPs cast their ballot in a turn of 98.2% of which 782 were found to be valid. One Postal ballot vote was cancelled as the MP didn’t vote. 4 MPs from BRS and 7 from BJD and two other independents abstained from voting in these elections. Parties like YSRCP which were not part of NDA coalition extended support to CP Radhakrishnan.

The elevation of Tamilian CP Radhakrishnan as Vice President is likely to augur well for the BJP’s prospects in Tamil Nadu in the upcoming assembly elections. It is a known fact that the BJP is trying to make inroads in Tamil Nadu and projecting Radhakrishnan as Veep candidate is seen as a strategic step to improve its electoral performance there. Radhakrishnan served as a MP of Loksabha twice during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government.