The political atmosphere surrounding the Vice Presidential election is heated. This election typically unfolds as a calm constitutional process. For this election, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA coalition nominated CP Radhakrishnan, a senior party leader and the Governor of Maharashtra. The opposition countered with Justice B. Sudarshan Reddy, a former judge of the Supreme Court, turning the contest into a ‘South vs. South’ battle. Radhakrishnan hails from Tamil Nadu, while Sudarshan Reddy is from Andhra Pradesh. The question now arises: who will emerge victorious in this intriguing contest?
Looking at past Vice Presidential elections, the party in power at the center has often secured resounding victories. The most significant win in recent times was Jagdeep Dhankhar’s triumph following the BJP’s rise to power in 2014. He defeated Margaret Alva, the opposition leader, with a record number of votes, marking the most substantial loss for an opposition leader since 1997. Furthermore, since India’s independence, four Vice Presidents have been elected unopposed.
