National Democratic Alliance candidate CP Radhakrishnan defeated Opposition INDIA bloc’s Sudershan Reddy in the vice presidential election held on Tuesday.

While Radhakrishnan won 452 votes, Reddy secured 300 votes.

According to the Election Commission, 767 votes were polled, out of which 752 were found valid and 15 were invalid. Therefore, a candidate needed 377 votes to win the election.

MPs from the Biju Janata Dal, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi and the Shiromani Akali Dal did not vote.

The vice president is also the Rajya Sabha chairperson.

The election was necessitated after Jagdeep Dhankar resigned from the post on July 21 “to prioritise health care and abide by medical advice”. He had become the vice president on August 11, 2022, and his five-year term would have concluded in 2027.

The vice president is chosen by the electoral college, which consists of elected as well as nominated members of the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha. Unlike in the president’s election, state legislators do not vote.

Voting happens in the Parliament building by secret ballot. MPs rank the candidates in order of their choice.

For this election, the electoral college consisted of 12 nominated members and 233 elected members of the Upper House, and 543 Lok Sabha MPs.

Radhakrishnan has been the Maharashtra governor since July 2024. He previously served as the governor of Jharkhand and Telangana, and the lieutenant governor of Puducherry.

Radhakrishnan was associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the parent organisation of the BJP. He was the BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit chief between 2004 and 2007.

He was a BJP Lok Sabha MP from Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore between 1998 and 2004.

Minutes after the election result was announced on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Radhakrishnan and said that he was “confident that he will be an outstanding VP, who will strengthen our Constitutional values and enhance Parliamentary discourse”.

INDIA bloc chairperson Mallikarjun Kharge also congratulated Radhakrishnan. The Congress leader said that he hopes that the new vice president “will uphold the highest ethos of Parliamentary traditions, ensuring equal space and dignity for the Opposition, and not succumb to pressures of the ruling dispensation”.

Radhakrishnan’s opponent Reddy was a judge in the Andhra Pradesh High Court in 1995 before becoming the chief justice of the Gauhati High Court in 2005. He was a judge of the Supreme Court from 2007 to 2011, when he retired.

Reddy also served as Goa’s first Lokayukta, or the anti-corruption ombudsman, in 2013.

A day after Dhankhar resigned, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wished him good health and said that the Rajya Sabha chairperson had “got many opportunities to serve our country in various capacities”.

Several Opposition leaders had raised questions about the timing of Dhankhar’s resignation. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that there were “far deeper reasons” behind Dhankhar’s decision.

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