Chandrapuram Ponnusami Radhakrishnan was sworn in as the 15th Vice President of India on Friday. The oath of office was administered by President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan around 10 a.m.
Radhakrishnan, 67, emerged victorious in the vice-presidential election held on September 9, defeating Opposition nominee B. Sudershan Reddy by a margin of 152 votes. A veteran leader associated with the RSS and BJP, Radhakrishnan secured 452 out of 752 valid votes. Reddy received 300 votes, while 15 ballots were declared invalid.
The election followed the unexpected resignation of former Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on July 21, who stepped down citing health concerns. Dhankhar made his first public appearance since his resignation by attending the swearing-in ceremony.
The event saw the presence of several senior leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP President J.P. Nadda, and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. Former Vice Presidents Hamid Ansari and M. Venkaiah Naidu were also in attendance.
While Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi was notably absent, his Rajya Sabha counterpart, Mallikarjun Kharge, was present at the event.
Radhakrishnan’s win came as a setback for the Opposition bloc, which had anticipated at least 320 votes but appears to have suffered from cross-voting.
Radhakrishnan emerged as a prominent political figure in the late 1990s, winning the Coimbatore Lok Sabha seat in 1998 and 1999 with record margins — a remarkable feat in western Tamil Nadu, a region traditionally resistant to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
He later served as the BJP’s Tamil Nadu president from 2004 to 2007 and was inducted into the party’s National Executive. In February 2023, he was appointed governor of Jharkhand, before being shifted to Maharashtra in February 2024.
Colleagues describe him as firmly rooted in the Sangh’s ideology while remaining pragmatic in governance. Known for his direct approach and relatively untainted reputation, he stands out in a political arena often marked by intense rivalries and corruption.
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