CPR Wins Vice-Presidential Poll Hands Down; Gains Support From Some Opposition Members

The ruling BJP-led NDA’s candidate CP Radhakrishnan’s (CPR) election win as the Vice-President of India with 452 votes did not come as a surprise. What did was the margin — 14 additional votes that went in his favour! There is much speculation from where the extra votes came in. It is believed that MPs from secular bloc — including those belonging to DMK — at least four of them had reportedly voted for him. CPR is known to have good ties with the DMK and had won Coimbatore Lok Sabha seat twice with DMK’s support. Besides the DMK, other parties’ MPs from the SP and AAP too voted for CPR. The NDA already had 427 votes. With the declared support of 11 YSRCP MPs, that number went up to 438. Besides these extra votes, there were 15 invalid votes — 10 from the NDA side and five from the Opposition. The Opposition candidate — B Surendra Reddy polled 300 votes, 15 short of the 315 votes polled in his favour. Meanwhile, the Congress officially mocked the BRS and BJD for boycotting the Veep election with a post on the X, “If you call them the B team of BJP, they take offense. What more proof is needed than this? What compulsion does BRS have that it won’t even vote for a Telugu candidate? And Naveen Babu, even after such a humiliating defeat, you haven’t stopped giving them support”. It is being said Telangana CM Revanth Reddy apparently played a role in ensuring that the BRS with four Rajya Sabha MPs boycott V-P poll. The BRS has been under pressure ever since the Revanth Reddy government ordered probe into irregularities in Kalleshwaram project, argued a state MP. However, privately Congress leaders will have to thank Revanth Reddy for keeping the BRS away from the NDA.  The Opposition candidate pick for V-P was Revanth Reddy’s choice.