Maharashtra Governor and the NDA candidate, CP Radhakrishnan will succeed Jagdeep Dhankhar as the next Vice President of India. The 68-year-old won the election, scooping up 452 first preference votes, leaving Opposition candidate and retired Supreme Court judge B Sudershan Reddy trailing with 300 first preference votes. While 754 votes were cast, 15 were found to be invalid.
A veteran BJP leader, Radhakrishnan was elected to the Lok Sabha from Coimbatore twice and previously served as the BJP's state chief. He has served as the Governor of Jharkhand from February 2023 to July 2024 and held additional charge as the Governor of Telangana and Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry.
The question of Cross-voting
The voting figures also makes it clear that there has been considerable cross-voting, with 15 MPs from the Opposition expected to have voted for the NDA candidate.
Though the Congress has claimed that the 315 Opposition MPs had remain united in their votes, jubilant NDA is claiming this as another example of the deep gaps in the Opposition ranks ahead of a series of state elections.
The 150-vote margin, however, is one of the lowest in the Vice-Presidential polls.
In 2022, Jagdeep Dhankhar had beaten Opposition candidate Margaret Alva with the highest margin in the last six Vice Presidential elections. He secured 528 votes to her tally of 182.
The cancellation of 15 votes also raises questions about the Opposition votes. While the Congress claimed that had 315 votes but the Opposition candidate, Reddy got only 300 votes.
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