Maha Guv, RSS volunteer: Who is CP Radhakrishnan named Vice Presidential candidate by NDA

BJP president JP Nadda on Saturday announced that Maharashtra Governor CP Radhakrishnan, 68, will be the ruling National Democratic Alliance’s candidate for the post of Vice President of India.

“We want next vice president to be elected unanimously, we have reached out to opposition leaders,” Nadda said. He described Radhakrishnan as “considered a statesman” who “commands respect in all sections of society in Tamil Nadu.”

Nadda said, “CP Radhakrishnan considered a statesman, commands respect in all sections of society in Tamil Nadu,” announcing him as the candidate for NDA.

BJP announced the V-P candidate following a meeting of its parliamentary board on Sunday at party headquarters in Delhi. PM Narendra Modi, BJP chief JP Nadda, Union Ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Sarbananda Sonowal and other leaders were present in the meeting.

The vice-presidential election, necessitated by the resignation of incumbent Jagdeep Dhankhar last month, is scheduled for September 9. The last date for filing nomination is August 22.

According to The Hindu, the leadership of the BJP was keen that a party person, with ideological alignment with the party and alliance, as well as someone who could reach across the aisle as chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, would be preferred.

Under attack from the Opposition on the question of the imposition of Hindi and going into a tough election in Tamil Nadu early next year, the BJP seems to have hit several birds with one stone, the report said.

Who is CP Radhakrishnan?

Chandrapuram Ponnusamy Radhakrishnan has been serving as the 24th Governor of Maharashtra since July 2024. He previously served as Governor of Jharkhand from February 2023 to July 2024, and also held additional charges as Governor of Telangana and Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry between March 2024 and July 2024.

Radhakrishnan is the second ever OBC to be President or Vice President and first ever from South India. He is the thrid person ever to be Vice President from Tamil Nadu. He belongs to Goundar, Kongu Vellala community.

Radhakrishnan has been associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as a volunteer and the Jan Sangh from the age of 16. He was elected to the Lok Sabha twice from Coimbatore, in 1998 and 1999, in the aftermath of the Coimbatore bombings. He won by a margin of over 150,000 votes in 1998 and by 55,000 votes in 1999.

He was the Tamil Nadu BJP president from 2004 to 2007. During this time, he undertook a 93-day rath yatra covering all constituencies of the state, advocating river-linking, eradication of untouchability, and campaigning against terrorism.

Radhakrishnan represented India at the 58th UN General Assembly in 2003 as part of a parliamentary delegation, where he spoke on humanitarian and disaster relief coordination. He later served as chairman of the All India Coir Board under the Ministry of MSME from 2016 to 2020, and was the BJP in-charge for Kerala between 2020 and 2022.

In his long political career, he contested five times in Lok Sabha elections, securing victories in 1998 and 1999. In 2014, he finished second in Coimbatore with the highest votes polled for any BJP candidate in Tamil Nadu. He hails from Tamil Nadu and was born on May 4, 1957 in Tiruppur in the erstwhile Madras state.

His educational qualification includes a Bachelors of Business Administration from VO Chidambaram College, Tuticorin.

He is married to R Sumathi and is a fitness enthusiast, avid sportsperson, and long-distance runner.