CP Radhakrishnan, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate who won the Vice President of India election on Tuesday, was most recently the Governor of Maharashtra before the BJP-led alliance picked him to succeed Jagdeep Dhankhar.
Radhakrishnan's name came up after the BJP held detailed discussions with its alliance partners, and the party's ideological front, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Follow VP election LIVE updates
The nomination of Radhakrishnan, 68, who held the post of Maharashtra's Governor since July 2024, was also seen as an attempt from the BJP to strengthen its footprint in southern India, particularly Tamil Nadu.BJP leaders called him an “excellent choice for the role”, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealing for his unanimous election. He has friendly ties across the political spectrum, and is known as “Vajpayee of Coimbatore”.
Who is CP Radhakrishnan? Five facts
• Chandrapuram Ponnusamy Radhakrishnan was born in Tamil Nadu's Tiruppur on October 20, 1957, and belongs to the influential Gounder caste, an OBC community in the state. He has a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration.
{{/usCountry}}• Chandrapuram Ponnusamy Radhakrishnan was born in Tamil Nadu's Tiruppur on October 20, 1957, and belongs to the influential Gounder caste, an OBC community in the state. He has a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration.
{{/usCountry}}• Radhakrishnan has been a member of the RSS, and a member of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh's State Executive Committee. He served as the president of BJP's Tamil Nadu unit between 2004 and 2007. He was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time from Coimbatore in 1998 and was re-elected in 1999.
• He was sworn in as the Governor of Maharashtra on July 31, 2024, and has, previous to that, served as the Governor of Jharkhand for nearly one and a half years. During his stint in Jharkhand, in a rarity in his career which has mostly witnessed conciliatory politics, Radhakrishnan locked horns with the state's JMM government over several issues.
• Radhakrishnan's nomination drew favour from leaders in the BJP not just owing to his affable disposition, but also because he has narrowly missed being a part of the Union Cabinet twice. The NDA nominee came close to being appointed as a union minister, first as part of the Atal Bihar Vajpayee cabinet in 2000, and then again in the first Narendra Modi government in 2014, Radhakrishnan's team and senior BJP leaders confirmed to HT.
• Besides his political career, Radhakrishnan was an athlete during his college days, having been a champion in table tennis and a long-distance runner, according to the Maharashtra Governor's website.