V-P pick Radhakrishnan missed Union cabinet bus twice in the past, once over name confusion

In the inner circles of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, CP Radhakrishnan’s nomination has brought joy not just because he's a grassroots leader from Tamil Nadu, but also because the 68-year-old narrowly missed high-profile Lutyens’ assignments narrowly—twice.

- Sunetra Choudhury

Radhakrishnan's team and senior BJP leaders confirmed to HT that if things had gone according to plan, he would have been a Union minister in the Vajpayee cabinet in Delhi in 2000, more than a quarter of a century ago and then in the first Narendra Modi government in 2014.

The story goes that Radhakrishnan, having joined the BJP (then the Jan Sangh) in the 70s, knew central leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, well. He was part of the Sangh’s state executive committee and then won the Coimbatore Lok Sabha seat in both 1998 and 1999, with impressive margins. So, when Vajpayee was looking to reshuffle his cabinet a year after taking office, in 2000, he thought Radhakrishnan would be a good addition to his team.