CP Radhakrishnan: Rooted in RSS, soft-spoken

Strongly rooted in the RSS and the BJP, Chandrapuram Ponnusamy Radhakrishnan, who was Tuesday elected as the 15th Vice President of India, brings along a rich political and administrative experience which will prove handy in his role as the ex-officio Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha.

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Seen as a soft-spoken and non-confrontational leader, the 67-year-old Radhakrishnan succeeds Jagdeep Dhankhar, who resigned as vice president July 21, taking everyone by surprise. He is the third leader from Tamil Nadu to occupy the coveted post.

Described as a ‘Pachai Tam-izhan’ (true-blue Tamil) by well-wishers, Radhakrishnan was serving as the Governor of Maharashtra when he was named as the vice presidential nominee of the BJP-led NDA.

A two-term member of the Lok Sabha from Coimbatore during the tenure of prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Radhakrishnan came close to becoming a Union minister, but had to lose out to fellow Tamilan Pon Radhakrishnan in 1998 after some confusion over his name by the then floor managers of the BJP.

Radhakrishnan joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as a teenager and rose through the ranks in the organisation and later in the BJP, gaining acceptability in the party and the state.