The ruling National Democratic Alliance's Vice-Presidential candidate Chandrapuram Ponnusamy Radhakrishnan was on Tuesday elected as the 15th Vice President of India, the third leader from Tamil Nadu to occupy the coveted post.
Seen as a soft-spoken and non-confrontational leader, the 67-year-old Radhakrishnan succeeds Jagdeep Dhankhar, who resigned as vice president on July 21, taking everyone by surprise.
CP Radhakrishnan won the Vice-Presidential election with 452 votes while the INDIA bloc's candidate Justice (retired) Sudershan Reddy got 300 votes out of the total 767 votes that were cast in the election.
Returning officer and Rajya Sabha Secretary General PC Mody announced that a total of 767 votes were cast in the election, of which 15 were declared invalid. He said that Radhakrishnan got 452 first preference votes, compared to Reddy's 300. The majority mark was 377.
This makes Radhakrishnan secure 60% of the total valid votes and Reddy stand at 40%.
In the last Vice-Presidential election held in 2022 after the completion of the tenure of incumbent Venkaiah Naidu, the contest was held between Centre-ruling NDA’s Jagdeep Dhankhar and Opposition’s Vice-Presidential candidate Margaret Alva.
Shortly after the results of the 2025 elections were announced, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that Reddy secured 40% of the vote and in the last Vice-Presidential election, the Opposition had received 26% of the vote.
Ramesh said, "The BJP's arithmetical victory is really both a moral and political defeat."
"The Opposition stood united for the Vice-Presidential election. Its performance has undeniably been most respectable. Its joint candidate Justice (retd) B. Sudershan Reddy secured 40% of the vote. In 2022, the Opposition had received 26% of the vote in the Vice-Presidential election," he wrote in a post on X.
He further added, "The BJP's arithmetical victory is really both a moral and political defeat. The ideological battle continues undiminished."
Jagdeep Dhankhar won the elections securing 528 votes while 80-year-old Alva got 182 in the 2022 election.
Dhankhar, the NDA candidate, was declared as the winner of the Vice-Presidential election held on August 6, 2022. Radhakrishnan secured 76 fewer votes as compared to Dhankhar.
"NDA candidate Jagdeep Dhankhar won by 346 votes as he bagged 528 of the total 725 votes that were cast. While 15 votes were termed invalid, Opposition candidate Margaret Alva received 182 votes in the election," Lok Sabha General-Secretary Utpal K Singh, who was the returning officer for the poll, had said.
Dhankhar got 74% of the votes and Alva 26% among the total valid votes.
The total number of eligible voters, comprising the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha MPs in the 2022 election, was 780.
With 725 votes being cast, the total voter turnout was 92.94 percent, the officer added.
Dhankhar, then 72, was administered the oath of office on August 11, a day after the tenure of incumbent Vice President Venkaiah Naidu expired.
Dhankhar, who was serving as the governor of West Bengal till his nomination was announced a month before, faced a challenge from ex-Union minister and former five-time Congress MP, Margaret Alva. Her candidature was backed by a major section of the opposition parties.
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