Rise & Rise of a Tested, Trusted Swayamsevak

Amid border talks with China, no cut in LAC security deployment

- T MURUGANANDHAM @ Chennai

CHANDRAPURAM Ponnusamy Radhakrishnan, 67, a veteran BJP leader and lifelong RSS swayamsevak, is poised to become India's Vice-President, making him the third Tamil Nadu-born leader to occupy the nation's second-highest constitutional office. He follows in the footsteps of Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1952-62) and R Venkataraman (1984-87), both of whom later rose to the presidency.

Born on October 20, 1957, in Tiruppur—the "knitwear capital of India" in Tamil Nadu's Kongu belt—Radhakrishnan was drawn to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) early. At just 17, he joined the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, the political forerunner to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).