HyderabadAugust 19, 2025 02:41 PM IST
First published on: Aug 19, 2025 at 02:40 PM IST
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The Opposition INDIA alliance on Tuesday named retired Supreme Court judge B Sudershan Reddy its candidate for the September 9 Vice-Presidential elections.
“All INDIA bloc parties have decided to have a common candidate; the decision has been taken unanimously. I am happy that all Opposition parties have agreed on one name. It is a big achievement for democracy,” Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said, announcing Reddy’s candidature.
“Whenever democracy and the Constitution are under attack, Opposition parties unite to fight against it. So we have decided to field a good candidate in this election,” he said.
The 79-year-old who hails from the village of Akula Mylaram in Telangana’s Ranga Reddy district, on the outskirts of Hyderabad, was in the Supreme Court from January 2007 to July 2011, and recently led the Independent Expert Working Group (IEWG) that the Telangana government constituted to evaluate and submit a report on the state’s Social, Educational, Economic, Employment, Political and Caste (SEEEPC) survey.
Justice Reddy studied law at Osmania University, graduating in 1971. He went on to become the Government Pleader in the Andhra Pradesh High Court and was later elected president of the AP HC Advocates Association. In 1993, he first became an additional judge in the AP High Court and 12 years later moved to the Gauhati High Court as its Chief Justice. In 2007, he moved to the top court.
Two years after his retirement, in March 2013, Reddy was appointed the Lokayukta of Goa. However, he resigned five months later, citing personal reasons. He was on the board of trustees of the International Arbitration and Mediation Centre in Hyderabad. In April 2022, the Supreme Court appointed him as the oversight authority to monitor the implementation of a project — Comprehensive Environmental Plan for Mining Impact Zone — for the restoration of areas in Karnataka affected by rampant mining (such as Ballari, Chitradurga, and Tumakuru district).
This March, the Telangana Government first approached him to head the committee to evaluate the caste survey results and submit a report to Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy. This brought him in proximity to Congress ministers, mainly Deputy CM Bhatti Vikramarka Mallu and senior ministers N Uttam Kumar Reddy and Ponnam Prabhakar. Sources said the Revanth Reddy government found that the report submitted by Justice Reddy provided invaluable insights into the caste dynamics in the state.
According to the insiders, it was after this that Congress leaders felt he should take on a bigger role. Given that he is seen as a politically neutral person with no ideological attachments, he was considered a top choice for Vice-President, a source said.