“Decent”, “friendly”, “unassuming”, “100 per cent RSS” – these are some of the epithets several leaders knowing Maharashtra Governor C P Radhakrishnan use to describe the ruling BJP-led NDA’s candidate for the Vice-Presidential election.
Fuelled by the NDA’s majority numbers, Radhakrishnan, known as CPR, is on course to succeed former V-P Jagdeep Dhankhar, who suddenly resigned on the opening day of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, two years before his tenure’s end, after falling out with the BJP dispensation. This marked an unprecedented development that a V-P quit in the middle of his term due to differences with the government.
The BJP high command nominated CPR, 67, as he ticks three key boxes: low-key, RSS background and South connection given that he is from Tamil Nadu.
While the Opposition INDIA bloc has chosen former Supreme Court judge Justice Sudershan Reddy for the September 9 V-P poll, CPR’s victory is seen as a foregone conclusion. The NDA has 422 MPs in the two Houses of their current strength of 781, which form the electoral college for the V-P election. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has been assigned to reach out to the non-NDA parties to muster additional support for Radhakrishnan. He even spoke with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president M K Stalin, a key INDIA ally, in this regard.
While the BJP is highlighting CPR’s Tamilian identity to connect with non-NDA parties in Tamil Nadu, the INDIA alliance is playing the Telugu card, hoping that the Andhra-born Reddy’s candidature would draw the TDP, a major NDA ally, to its side. Justice Reddy is known to have good relations with Andhra Pradesh CM and TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu.
Both the DMK and TDP have however made it clear that instead of getting swayed by linguistic or regional sentiments, they would rather back their respective alliances’ V-P nominees.
Yet, a South watcher remarked that the V-P poll has become “interesting”, even though its “result is predictable”.
Framing the contest as an “ideological battle”, the INDIA leadership hopes that, regardless of its outcome, their move to field a joint nominee would reinforce the bloc’s unity at a time when it is going all out to mobilise public opinion on issues like “vote chori” and the Election Commission (EC)’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.
The Indian polity has become so deeply divided today that political alignments seem to be subsuming regional identities. It has come a long distance from the days when the then undivided Shiv Sena cross-voted for the Congress’s presidential candidate Pratibha Patil in 2007 as she hailed from Maharashtra. Or the 2012 presidential poll, when the Left parties and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supported the Congress-led UPA’s nominee Pranab Mukherjee because of “Bengali pride”.
In the wake of Dhankhar’s abrupt exit, it was clear that the BJP top brass would turn its gaze within its ranks to pick his successor – and not an “outsider” or a “flamboyant” leader. The party no longer had an appetite for another Dhankhar or Satyapal Malik. This time it had to be someone who would walk in step with the party leadership all the way and not be outspoken on issues independent of the government’s stance. It had to be a low-profile leader, not unlike the CMs the party named for states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in preference to prominent heavyweights like Shivraj Chouhan or Vasundhara Raje.
“You have to learn to lie low in order to progress in the BJP and RSS” – this is a conventional wisdom about the party which Radhakrishnan knows well enough.
A BJP veteran, CPR became an RSS member at the age of 16, has been Tamil Nadu BJP chief and a two-time Lok Sabha MP from Coimbatore – a region where the BJP has been strong since 1998, when an assassination attempt was made on LK Advani through serial blasts. In recent years, he was the Lt Governor of Puducherry and Governors of states like Jharkhand and currently, Maharashtra. In Mumbai Raj Bhavan, his predecessor B S Koshyari was known for making gaffes. However, CPR has steered clear of multiple political rows which have roiled Maharashtra over the last several months.
Radhakrishnan’s selection is also being seen in political circles as the BJP leadership’s “goodwill gesture” towards the RSS. It is hardly a secret that there have been some tensions in the relationship between the BJP and Sangh, the party’s ideological mentor, which was cited as one of the reasons why the party’s tally in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls slumped from 303 seats to 240. RSS cadre however worked proactively in the subsequent Assembly elections in Haryana, Maharashtra and Delhi, not wanting the Congress to get an upper hand.
A series of meetings between the Sangh and the BJP leadership have been held at various levels over the last year to resolve differences. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat recently talked about the desirability of leaders making way for others after the age of 75. However, it is a given that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will turn 75 on September 16, would remain the BJP’s face in the 2029 Lok Sabha polls too. PM Modi’s praise for the RSS in his Independence Day speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort also reflects that their ties are on an even keel now, which was echoed by CPR’s selection for the V-P poll.
Ahead of the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections slated for April 2026, CPR’s nomination is a significant move. The BJP sees Tamil Nadu as its “final frontier” where making inroads could lead to expansion of its footprint across the South. The PM invested a lot of time and effort in Tamil Nadu during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, but the BJP could not open its account there. The 2026 polls would thus be another opportunity for the party to make its mark in the state.
It is however debatable whether a symbolic move like CPR’s elevation would actually bolster the BJP’s electoral prospects in Tamil Nadu. CPR belongs to the influential Gounder (OBC) community, but so does ex-state BJP chief K Annamalai as well as the party’s ally Edappadi K Palaniswami or EPS, the AIADMK chief.
Despite his understated approach, CPR is an old political hand with links to both the Dravidian parties. After Dhankhar’s surprise exit, all eyes would be on CPR as to how he would handle the Rajya Sabha as its Chairman if he clinches the poll, as expected.
The V-P is mandated to work in tandem with the government. He is also required to run the Upper House in a way that creates confidence among the Opposition benches about the Chair’s impartiality and fairness. Amid the growing hostility between the government and the Opposition, CPR may thus face an uphill task despite his “affable and non-abrasive” credentials.
(Neerja Chowdhury, Contributing Editor, The Indian Express, has covered the last 11 Lok Sabha elections. She is the author of ‘How Prime Ministers Decide’)