'Victory of nationalist ideology': C.P. Radhakrishnan’s first public remark after V-P poll win

Terming his election to the vice president post as a "victory of nationalist ideology", BJP leader C.P. Radhakrishnan said he will try his best for the development of the nation in his new capacity.

 

Radhakrishnan, the current governor of Maharashtra, won the polls by bagging 452 votes while the Opposition candidate, B. Sudarshan Reddy, polled 300 votes.

 

"The other side camp (opposition alliance) said that this (election) is an ideological fight, but from the voting pattern, we understand that the nationalistic ideology has emerged victorious," Radhakrishnan said.

 

"It is a victory for every Indian; we all have to work together. If we have to develop Viksit Bharat by 2047, which means we should not do politics in everything, now we will have to concentrate on development," he said.

 

Radhakrishnan, a former president of the BJP Tamil Nadu unit, termed the ruling party and the opposition as the two sides of the same coin and asserted that the interest of democracy will be taken into account.

 

According to Rajya Sabha Secretary General and Returning Officer P.C. Mody, 767 MPs out of 781 cast their votes with a total turnout of 98.2 per cent. He said 752 ballots were valid and 15 were invalid, bringing down the required majority of first preference votes to 377.

 

The victory of Radhakrishnan was a foregone conclusion due to the ruling alliance's numerical edge. However, the extent of his victory margin is a setback to the Opposition, which had claimed all its 315 MPs remained united in the election and voted for Reddy.

India