CP Radhakrishnan takes oath as 15th Vice President of India
CP Radhakrishnan takes oath as 15th Vice President of India
M.U.H
12/09/202544
Chandrapuram Ponnusamy Radhakrishnan took oath as the 15th Vice President of India at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Friday, three days after he won the election by a landslide margin.
Radhakrishnan took charge of the second-highest Constitutional office in India that has been lying vacant since July 21 after Jagdeep Dhankhar resigned citing health reasons.
Clad in a red kurta and ‘mundu’ — the traditional Tamil attire — Radhakrishnan and other VIP guests waited for President Droupadi Murmu to arrive at the venue. At 10.11am, he took oath in English, followed by “congratulations” by President Murmu.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, defence minister Rajnath Singh, Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and a host of leaders greeted Radhakrishnan with applause after he took oath. CPI(M) MP John Brittas too attended the ceremony.
After his swearing-in, Radhakrishnan will offer floral tributes at the Prerna Sthal and plant a tree before taking charge with immediate effect as the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. He will begin his official duties in Parliament during the winter session later this year.
Dhankhar made his first public appearance since July 21. He was joined by his predecessors M Venkaiah Naidu and Hamid Ansari.
No Opposition leader was visible in the live telecast of the event.
Radhakrishnan has his task cut out in a deeply divided Rajya Sabha that has seen unprecedented friction between the Chair and the Opposition in the past two years, resulting in the first ever no confidence notice against a Vice President since Independence. Dhankhar, however, had rejected the notice against him on technical grounds.
CP Radhakrishnan was picked after detailed discussions with alliance partners, and the party’s ideological head the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He defeated Opposition candidate B Sudershan Reddy by 452-300 votes, a higher-than-expected margin.
The 68-year-old BJP leader, who is rooted in the RSS ideology, is known in the party as a soft-spoken, non-controversial figure, who is also the only BJP leader from Tamil Nadu, to have been elected to the Lok Sabha twice in 1998 and 1999.
Before his elevation, he was the governor of Maharashtra, a position he held since July 31, 2024.
Radhakrishnan, an OBC from the Goundar-Kongu Vellalar community, was born in Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu, where he went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in business administration.
Having cut his teeth in public life as an RSS Swayamsevak, he rose to become the state executive committee member of the Bharatiya Janasangh in 1974. His colleagues said his affability and ability to steer the party without conflict and controversy were the reasons why he was picked to head the state unit in 2004.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, flew to Delhi from Bengaluru, where he was heading a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association meeting, to attend the swearing-in ceremony. He will return to Bangalore on Friday evening.
