Vice President Election: How Congress fumbled on strategy, lost both plot and game

The Congress decided to force a contest for the post of Vice President by fielding a joint Opposition candidate despite lacking numbers. (File Photo: PTI)

National Democratic Alliance nominee and Maharashtra Governor CP Radhakrishnan on Tuesday emerged as the winner in the vie-presidential election, paving the way for his appointment as former Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar's successor.

He defeated his rival candidate from the Opposition, retired Supreme Court judge B Sudershan Reddy, by a margin of 152 votes. While 452 votes were polled in favour of Radhakrishnan, Reddy received 300 votes in a poll were the majority mark was 377.

Of the effective electoral college of 781 MPs from both Houses of Parliament, a total of 767 votes were polled for the vice president election at the Parliament complex in New Delhi this morning, accounting for a turnout of 98.2 per cent. Of these, 752 votes were declared valid, leaving the majority mark at 377.

The outcome of the vice-presidential contest was a foregone conclusion even before the polls were announced. The electoral college for the vice-presidential election includes MPs from both houses of parliament where the BJP-led NDA enjoys a majority.

The Telugu Card

The contest could have been avoided had the Congress-led INDIA bloc opted to support the NDA candidate in a battle it was deemed to lose even before it began. It chose otherwise.

Seeking to put the NDA in a bind, the INDIA bloc announced Justice (retired) B Sudershan Reddy, a native from Andhra Pradesh as its V-P candidate with an intent to leave BJP in a tricky situation with its key ally, the Chandrababu Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party.

Born on July 8, 1946, Justice Reddy had a long career as an advocate and a jurist in Andhra Pradesh before being elevated as Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court and, eventually, the Supreme Court. The Congress had hoped that the move would make the TDP feel compelled to support Reddy and break away from the NDA line.

The move, however, backfired as the TDP announced support for the NDA candidate as a mark of unity and a decision rooted in national interest. The Bharat Rashtra Samiti, which maintains equidistance from the BJP and Congress, said it will abstain from voting during polls.

Of the other two Telugu regional parties, the TDP and JanaSena Party are part of the NDA, while the YSRCP also announced its backing for NDA nominee Radhakrishnan.

Ideological Battle

The Congress had also sought to position the vice presidential polls as a show of unity of the INDIA bloc as well as a battle of ideologies. The INDIA bloc has repeatedly pointed to Radhakrishnan's RSS roots to justify their opposition to the NDA nominee.

On the contrary, it has also branded Sudershan, a retired jurist, as a "man of the Constitution" with a clean image. The contest was thus dubbed as one between the RSS and the Constitution.

However, the BJP kept blowing holes in this claim as it brandished Sudershan's 'Salwa Judum' verdict to claim that he "derailed" India's fight against Maoism, setting it back by a decade.

On the eve of the poll, the party also picked on Congress for fielding a candidate who met RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav, convicted for his role in financial irregularities and corruption in the animal husbandry department of the state when he was the Chief Minister.