India to elect next Vice President on September 9, NDA’s Radhakrishnan faces opposition nominee Sudarshan Reddy
New Delhi, September 8 – Members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will cast their votes on Tuesday, September 9, to decide between C. P. Radhakrishnan and B. Sudarshan Reddy for the post of India’s next Vice President. Voting will take place from 10 am to 5 pm in Room F-101, Vasudha, Parliament House, with results expected by the evening.
Radhakrishnan, the ruling National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) candidate, is pitted against the opposition’s joint nominee Sudarshan Reddy. The electoral college comprises 233 elected Rajya Sabha members (with five seats currently vacant), 12 nominated Rajya Sabha members, and 543 elected Lok Sabha members (with one seat vacant), bringing the total strength to 781 out of 788.
As per agency report, both candidates hail from southern India, with Radhakrishnan representing Tamil Nadu and Reddy from Telangana. The election was necessitated after Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar resigned during the recent monsoon session citing health reasons, even though his term had two years remaining.
Numerically, the NDA candidate enjoys a clear advantage, but Reddy has framed the contest as an ideological battle, urging lawmakers to view their vote as a choice for India’s democratic spirit rather than party loyalty.
Radhakrishnan belongs to the influential Gounder OBC community in Tamil Nadu and has a background in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He served as Governor of Jharkhand in 2023 before being transferred to Maharashtra in 2024. Known for his low-profile approach, he largely avoided controversial public comments as governor, in contrast to his predecessor Dhankhar. First elected to the Lok Sabha from Coimbatore in 1998 and re-elected in 1999, he has long experience in public life. Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently praised Radhakrishnan’s simplicity and dedication to service, remarking that while he may enjoy sports, he refrains from playing political games.
Sudarshan Reddy, meanwhile, is a former Supreme Court judge and has served as Lokayukta of Goa. He is also a trustee board member of the International Arbitration and Mediation Centre in Hyderabad. His judicial record has drawn political fire, with Union Home Minister Amit Shah criticizing his role in the Salwa Judum judgment, accusing him of indirectly supporting Naxalism. Reddy responded by stressing that the ruling was a decision of the Supreme Court, not his alone, and urged Shah to read the full judgment before making remarks.
On Sunday, Reddy appealed to MPs not to let party allegiance dictate their vote, but to elect him in order to uphold the Rajya Sabha as a true temple of democracy. The contest, though numerically tilted toward the NDA, is expected to carry symbolic weight in reflecting the balance between ideology and majority politics.
