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'Vajpayee of Coimbatore': What CP Radhakrishnan's election as Vice President means for BJP, India's politics
Radhakrishnan, 68, started out with BJP's ideological parent body RSS; rose through ranks in Tamil Nadu when BJP has not had an easy run in the southern state
The ruling BJP-led NDA's candidate CP Radhakrishnan's election on Tuesday as the Vice President of India does not carry a surprise. Numbers were already stacked up for him. But it sends out key signals that go far beyond New Delhi and the now.
His personality and history have much to do with it.
Radhakrishnan's win underscores a renewed southward foray of the BJP in choosing a Tamil Nadu leader for the post, as the state goes to polls next year. Plus, the party has chosen lifelong loyalty in RSS veteran Radhakrishnan, which means a clean break from someone like Jagdeep Dhankhar who had a winding political career.
There are other reasons, too — he is from a caste among the Other Backward Classes (OBC), for instance.
But first, how the contest panned out:
- The Opposition INDIA bloc put up a combined candidate in former Supreme Court judge B Sudershan Reddy, who being a Telugu is also from the South. They sought to pitch it as a battle of ideologies, terming the BJP “anti-Constitution”. He got 300 as against Radhakrishnan's 452, of the counted ballots.
- The BJP-led NDA always had the numbers, so the elevation of the Maharashtra governor to the position of VP, and Rajya Sabha chairperson, was less a heated election and more a symbolic contest. The post of vice-president is largely ceremonial, though it includes active duties as chairperson of the Upper House of Parliament.
Lifelong RSS worker, BJP veteran who became MP against odds
Radhakrishnan, now in his later 60s, was in his teenage when he started out in the BJP's ideological parent body, the RSS. He was born in Tiruppur and has a bachelor’s degree in business administration.
After his fulltime move to electoral politics, he became a member of the Lok Sabha twice, during the tenure of Atal Bihari Vajpayee as PM. That was when the political climate in Tamil Nadu could simply be termed unfriendly to the Hindutva-focused BJP, a party seen as the antithesis of the Dravidian ideology.
Radhakrishnan was elected from Coimbatore, an industrial city, in 1998 and 1999, with the support of the AIADMK and DMK, respectively, as the BJP's allies changed. Known, thus, to have friendly ties across the political divide, he was also called the “Vajpayee of Coimbatore” for his conciliatory politics. He was also in the running to be a minister in the late 1990s, but missed out due to a confusion over names, HT has reported.
In the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he lost; and was subsequently given gubernatorial assignments by the Modi government.
His trajectory all along with the Sangh Parivar is quite unlike that of Rajasthan native Dhankhar, who was with the Janata Dal and the Congress before becoming a BJP member.
CP Radhakrishnan: New Rajya Sabha chairman has soft-spoken demeanour
As Vice President of India, CP Radhakrishnan will be the chairperson of the Upper House of Parliament, the Rajya Sabha. His soft-spoken, non-controversial personality can be important in such a role.
His colleagues have told HT that his affability was a big reason why he was picked to head the BJP state unit in Tamil Nadu in 2004. By 2023, the BJP was trying to create new leadership in the state, so he was moved first to Jharkhand as governor, later to Maharashtra.
In Jharkhand, he had some run-ins with Hemant Soren's government, but the stint was not as combative as those of other BJP governors in non-BJP states.
Radhakrishnan has, in past interviews, stressed that he has an inclusive outlook. “There was a bomb blast in Coimbatore. I was against the terrorist(s) but not against Muslims. When some Muslims approached me, I went to the police and said that they must arrest only those who are connected with the blast. No one expected this. That’s why I am called the ‘Vajpayee of Coimbatore’,” he recounted in an interview with Sansad TV.
Caste matters: Message in OBC elevation to a top post
Beyond his personality and demeanour, the fact that CP Radhakrishnan belongs to the Gounder caste — an OBC community with influence in western Tamil Nadu — may also help the BJP firm up its alliance with the AIADMK, observers say. On a wider stage, it could help the BJP in OBC consolidation in national politics, too.
Hindutva may be pitched as the opposite side of Dravidian politics, but even the latter is centered on OBC empowerment.
Radhakrishnan’s ascent anyway means more regional diversity in the national setup. The southern states remained relatively under-represented at the Centre since Venkaiah Naidu's term as VP ended about three years ago.
