Polling in the high-stakes Vice-Presidential election 2025 took place on Tuesday with Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, casting the first ballot. The voting commenced in the morning and went on till 5 pm in the new Parliament house. Voting will begin at 6 pm and it is expected to have results later in the night.
This year the nominee of the BJP-led NDA, which is the Governor of Maharashtra, C.P. Radhakrishnan, and the nominee of the INDIA bloc, the B. Sudershan Reddy are in a straight fight. Radhakrishnan is perceived to be the winner given the NDA has a definite numerical majority in both Houses of Parliament. This is after the shocking resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar on July 21 who resigned on health grounds.
On Monday, a strategy meeting was held in both camps NDA and INDIA bloc. The Opposition reminded its MPs not to cast invalid votes, and said that they must only mark 1 in relation to its candidate of choice. It is elected by secret ballot and MPs are not subject to the party whip and thus the votes of independent and smaller party MPs prove vital.
There are 781 voting members of the electoral college this year and 391 votes are needed to reach a majority. The NDA boasts of 425 MPs as compared to the 324 of the Opposition bloc. Unaffiliated MPs YSR Congress has shown its support to Radhakrishnan, whereas AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi is supporting Reddy. The BJD and BRS have chosen not to participate and the Shiromani Akali Dal has boycotted the polls.
C.P. Radhakrishnan is an experienced BJP politician of Tamil Nadu of the OBC, seen as having a background of being a soft-spoken, uncontroversial politician with strong RSS connections. His nomination highlights the inclusivity that the BJP is taking coupled with reliance on experience and the country awaits the coming of the next Vice President.