New Delhi, Sept 9: NDA candidate CP Radhakrishnan was elected the 17th Vice President of India on Tuesday, polling 452 of the 767 valid votes cast. His rival, opposition nominee B Sudarshan Reddy, secured 300 votes.
The Returning Officer, Rajya Sabha Secretary General PC Mody, declared Radhakrishnan elected, noting that 781 electors were eligible to vote. A total of 767 MPs cast their votes, marking a turnout of 98.2 per cent. Of these, 752 were valid while 15 were invalid. One postal ballot was received, returned and cancelled.
Radhakrishnan, a veteran BJP leader and old RSS hand who is currently the Governor of Maharashtra, crossed the halfway mark comfortably but with a narrower margin than his predecessor. His winning margin stood at 152 votes, compared to Jagdeep Dhankhar’s thumping 346-vote victory in 2022 — the highest in the past six VP elections.
Evidence of cross-voting emerged on both sides. Radhakrishnan won around 25 votes more than the NDA’s calculation of 427, while Reddy fell short of the opposition bloc’s projected 315, garnering only 300.
In terms of vote share, Radhakrishnan polled 60 per cent of valid votes. Dhankhar, by contrast, had secured 72.8 per cent of the 725 valid votes two years ago. The record for the largest-ever winning margin remains with KR Narayanan, who in 1992 swept 700 of 701 valid votes against independent candidate Kaka Joginder Singh.
Celebrations broke out at the residence of Union Minister Pralhad Joshi soon after the results were declared. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to join the festivities upon his return from Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, where he is reviewing flood damage.
