Gopalkrishna Gandhi is Opposition's choice for Vice President: All you need to know

India will elect its 15th vice-president today. The results will be known by evening, and the voting will take place from 10 a.m to 5 p.m. Both the houses of the Parliament will vote to elect the vice president. The Opposition has chosen former Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi as its candidate for the post of Vice President of India. He was also in rounds for the presidential candidate, as initially, the Opposition had reached a consensus over two leaders — former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and former governor and diplomat, Gopalkrishna Gandhi. Playing all the cards right, and maintaining his own legacy, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, former administrator, also said that commenting his election to be the vice-presidential candidate would be ‘speculative’. So, who is Gopakrishna Gandhi? Born to Mahatma Gandhi’s youngest son, Devdas Gandhi and C Rajgopalchari’s youngest daughter, Lakshmi, Gopalkrishna Gandhi went to the New Delhi’s legacy college St. Stephen’s College to pursue Masters in English Literature. He served as an IAS officer in different capacities in Tamil Nadu till 1985. He has also been the Secretary to the Vice President from 1985 to 1987, Joint Secretary to President from 1987 to 1992, finally serving as a Secretary to President in 1997. He retired voluntarily from the administrative service in 1992. He was also a reputed diplomat, having served as the Minister (Culture) in the High Commission of India, UK. He also served as High Commissioner to South Africa in 1996, where he earned a popular repute, as reported by the Outlook.

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Following this, he served as High Commissioner for India in Lesotho, Sri Lanka (2000) and Norway (2002). While serving as the Governor of Bengal from 2004 to 2009, he ‘travelled incognito’ and gained respect for admonishing Nandigram struggle, in West Bengal. His apolitical pursuits and writer genes have led him to translate Vikram Seth’s Suitable Boy and often pens for leading national dailies. He has also written a novel on Sri Lanka’s Tamil plantation workers.