New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi met the NDA’s candidate for the Vice Presidential post, CP Radhakrishnan, in Delhi. Prime Minister Modi said, “Met Thiru CP Radhakrishnan Ji. Conveyed my best wishes on his being the NDA’s Vice Presidential nominee. His long years of public service and experience across domains will greatly enrich our nation.
The decision came after a meeting of the BJP parliamentary board, attended by senior leaders including Prime Minister Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The announcement was made by BJP national president and Union Minister JP Nadda, following the sudden resignation of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on 21 July due to health reasons. Dhankhar, 74, stepped down two years into his term, which began in August 2022.
By fielding CP Radhakrishnan as its Vice-Presidential candidate, the BJP is seeking to strike multiple political chords at once — from caste equations to regional ambitions in Tamil Nadu — while also attempting to unsettle the Opposition. The nomination puts the ruling DMK in a spot, forcing it to choose between backing a candidate from its own state or standing firmly with the INDIA bloc.
However, sources say the DMK has suggested that India Bloc field a candidate from Tamil Nadu to contest against him. Born in Tiruppur on October 20, 1957, CP Radhakrishnan has more than four decades of political and public life behind him. He entered politics as a member of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh’s state executive in 1974 and went on to serve as BJP’s Tamil Nadu secretary in 1996.
Radhakrishnan’s career has also taken him to international platforms – from representing India at the UN General Assembly in 2004 to being part of the country’s first parliamentary delegation to Taiwan. As BJP’s Tamil Nadu president between 2004 and 2007, he spearheaded a 93-day, 19,000-km rath yatra that focused on river-linking, eradicating untouchability, a uniform civil code, counterterrorism and the fight against drugs.
Read Also : India’s GST Revolution: Electronics, Cars, and Daily Items Set for Major Price Cuts