By Salonee Kulkarni
India elected its 15th Vice President, CP Radhakrishnan, replacing the former Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, on Tuesday. The electoral college consists of 788 members for the elections with PM Narendra Modi casting the first ballot.
The election is contested by following a procedure where confidentiality regarding the ballots is maintained. The BJP-led NDA and Congress-led opposition conducted mock polls. C.P. Radhakrishnan, a BJP member contested with Justice B. Sudershan Reddy, a Supreme Court Judge. The numbers favoured Radhakrishnan. The result supported the expected numbers with 452 votes for the current elected 15th Vice President.
CP Radhakrishnan is 67 years old MP who has served two terms in the Lok Sabha as an MP for Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. The term was served during the tenure of then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Whereas, Justice B. Sudershan Reddy was known for landmark rulings.
During the voting process, CP appealed that the vote must be governed by principles rather than party loyalty. He further emphasised that it would ensure that the temple of democracy would not be demolished and the Rajya Sabha would be governed by the principles of democracy.
Subsequently, the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu (YRS) Congress has 11 MPs who voted for the NDA nominee. BRS and BJD have abstained from voting, citing support for Telangana farmers. The boycotting of elections by some members resulted in decreased participation. Shiromani Akali Dal boycotted elections, citing the centre and state government’s failure to provide adequate relief to the Punjab flood victims. BJD abstained from voting.
Votes were cast in the morning by the opposition party, Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress President), Party Chairperson (Sonia Gandhi), and Leader of Opposition (Rahul Gandhi), voted alongside other members (MPs Shashi Tharoor, Priyanka Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh). Akhilesh Yadav, the Samajwadi Party chief, voted. Despite being in jail, “Engineer Rashid” was able to cast his vote with the approval of special permission.