CP Radhakrishnan Takes Oath as India’s 15th Vice-President; PM Modi Attends Ceremony
Veteran BJP leader Chandrapuram Ponnusamy Radhakrishnan was sworn in as the 15th Vice-President of India on Friday morning at a formal ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. President Droupadi Murmu administered the oath of office to the 67-year-old leader in the presence of the nation’s top political leadership.
The event was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the outgoing Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar, his predecessor M Venkaiah Naidu, former President Ram Nath Kovind, and senior Union ministers including Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, and Nitin Gadkari. Radhakrishnan, a seasoned politician from Tamil Nadu with deep roots in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), secured a comfortable victory in the vice-presidential election.
He polled 452 votes, decisively defeating the opposition’s INDIA bloc nominee, former Supreme Court judge B Sudershan Reddy, who received 300 votes. Radhakrishnan’s win was widely anticipated given the numerical superiority of the BJP-led NDA in Parliament. The ruling coalition, which had 427 MPs, also garnered support from the YSR Congress Party and other smaller parties, easily crossing the required halfway mark of 377 votes.
The election was held following the unexpected resignation of Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar on July 21, who stepped down citing health reasons. Prior to his election, Radhakrishnan served as the Governor of Maharashtra, a post he resigned from on Thursday. Following his resignation, Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat has been given the additional charge of Maharashtra. A two-time Lok Sabha MP from Coimbatore and a former chief of the BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit, Radhakrishnan has had a long and distinguished political career that began with the Jana Sangh.
