National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate Chandrapuram Ponnusamy (CP) Radhakrishnan has been elected as the 15th Vice President of India after winning the vice-presidential election held on Tuesday. He defeated the joint Opposition candidate, former Supreme Court judge B. Sudershan Reddy, in a high-stakes contest.

According to Rajya Sabha General Secretary PC Modi, the NDA nominee secured 452 first-preference votes, while the INDIA bloc’s candidate, Justice Reddy, received 300 votes.

Voting began at 10 am and continued till 5 pm, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi being the first Member of Parliament to cast his ballot.

Born on October 20, 1957, in Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu, CP Radhakrishnan is a veteran BJP leader with more than four decades of political experience. Currently serving as the 24th Governor of Maharashtra since July 2024, he had earlier served as Governor of Jharkhand (February 2023–July 2024) and briefly held additional charge of Telangana and Puducherry.

Radhakrishnan began his political journey in the 1970s through the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He went on to serve as BJP’s Tamil Nadu State President (2004–2007) and achieved the rare distinction of being elected twice to the Lok Sabha from Coimbatore, a feat uncommon for BJP leaders in Tamil Nadu.

Belonging to the Gounder community, he is seen as a prominent OBC leader within the party.

An alumnus with a degree in Business Administration, Radhakrishnan also has a diverse personal profile. He was once a college-level table tennis champion, a long-distance runner, and actively participated in cricket and volleyball, highlighting his interests beyond politics.