CP Radhakrishnan took the oath of Vice President of India at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Friday. President Draupadi Murmu administered the oath of office to Radhakrishnan.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, J.P. Nadda, Nitin Gadkari and other dignitaries were present. Prior to the ceremony, several leaders arrived in Delhi to participate in the program.
Among the people present in the capital, Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, Karnataka Governor Thawarchand Gehlot, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N.K. Chandrababu Naidu, Punjab Governor and Chandigarh Administrator Gulab Chand Kataria, Jharkhand Governor Santosh Gangwar and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav are included.
NDA candidate Chandrapuram Ponnusamy Radhakrishnan was elected the 15th Vice President of India on Tuesday. He got 452 votes, while the opposition candidate and former Supreme Court Judge B.K. Sudarshan Reddy got 300 votes. Earlier, he has been the Governor of Maharashtra.
He also served as the Governor of Jharkhand from February 2023 to July 2024. He also took over the additional charge of Telangana Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry between March and July 2024. Senior BJP leader Radhakrishnan was elected to the Lok Sabha twice from Coimbatore and was also the state president of Tamil Nadu BJP.
Rajya Sabha General Secretary and Election Officer PC Modi said that out of 781 MPs, 767 voted, which led to 98.2 percent voting. Of these, 752 ballots were valid and 15 illegal, which reduced the required majority for the first preference votes to 377.
The NDA had the support of 427 MPs on papers, but 11 MPs of YSRCP also supported Radhakrishnan. Interestingly, the NDA candidate got 14 votes more than expected, causing cross-voting speculation in the opposition camp.
In addition, 13 MPs avoided voting in the election. These include seven of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), four of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), one of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and one independent MP.
