NDA's Radhakrishnan India's new vice prez

Chandrapuram Ponnusamy Radhakrishnan was elected as the 15th vice-president of India on Tuesday after securing 452 of 767 votes polled in the election, a higher-than expected tally that indicated some cross voting from the opposition benches and support from fence-sitters.

- Saubhadra Chatterji and Smriti Kak Ramachandran

Rajya Sabha secretary general and returning officer PC Mody said 767 MPs cast their votes out of the total valid electors of 781 in a turnout of 98.2%. He said 752 ballots were valid and 15 were invalid, bringing down the required majority of first preference votes to 377.

At least fourteen MPs, including lawmakers from the Biju Janata Dal, Bharat Rashtra Samithi, Akali Dal and two independents, didn’t vote.

"I declare CP Radhakrishnan elected to the post of vice-presi-dent of India and the results will be communicated to the Election Commission," Mody said.

The Opposition candidate, former Supreme Court judge B Sudershan Reddy, got 300 votes after the votes cast in the daylong exercise were counted. This was an improvement from the tally of 182 in 2022 when the Congress's Margaret Alva fought against the National Democratic Alliance's Jagdeep Dhankhar. The Opposition hailed its showing but the final tally exposed some fault lines as a significant number of lawmakers were estimated to have cross-voted for the NDA.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi later met Radhakrishnan, who was also the governor of Maharashtra, at Union minister Pralhad Joshi’s residence.

"His life has always been devoted to serving society and empowering the poor and mar-ginalised. I am confident that he will be an outstanding VP, who will strengthen our constitutional values and enhance parliamentary discourse," Modi posted on X.