Finance
Chandrapuram Ponnusamy Radhakrishnan was sworn in as India’s 15th vice-president on Friday during a ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan. At 10.10 a.m., President Droupadi Murmu gave him the oath of office in English.
The oath-taking event was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former Vice Presidents Jagdeep Dhankhar and M Venkaiah Naidu, former President Ram Nath Kovind, Union Ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, and Nitin Gadkari, as well as a number of other dignitaries.
Radhakrishnan, 67, a veteran BJP leader from Tamil Nadu with strong ties to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), won the vice-presidential election by 452 votes. His opponent, INDIA bloc nominee and former Supreme Court judge B Sudershan Reddy, received 300 votes.
Radhakrishnan’s victory was expected given the numerical strength of the BJP-led NDA, which had 427 MPs on paper and received additional support from the YSR Congress Party’s 11 MPs and numerous other parties, comfortably crossing the halfway point of 377. There was also evidence of cross-voting in his support.
The election was prompted by Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar’s abrupt departure on July 21, citing health concerns.
Following his victory, Radhakrishnan resigned as Maharashtra’s governor on Thursday. President Murmu has assigned Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat the extra charge of Maharashtra until a new appointment is made.
Radhakrishnan, a two-term Coimbatore MP and former BJP Tamil Nadu chairman, has a decades-long career that began in the Jana Sangh before moving to the BJP.
