The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has picked Maharashtra Governor CP Radhakrishnan as its Vice Presidential candidate for the 9 September elections. Radhakrishnan will file nomination papers on 20 August.
Radhakrishnan’s candidature comes almost a month after Jagdeep Dhankhar resigned as Vice President on 21 July, opening the contest for his successor. Dhankhar, 74, assumed office in August 2022 and served until 2027.
Radhakrishnan will face the INDIA bloc’s yet-to-be-announced candidate in an election in which the numbers seem to favour the NDA.
Here are 5 reasons why NDA picked Radhakrishnan as its VP candidate:
1-Old RSS-hand, non-controversial
Radhakrishnan’s candidacy is primarily driven by his ideological anchoring, experts said.
Radhakrishnan has been associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological mentor of the BJP, since the age of 16. He became a state Executive Committee Member of the Bharatiya Janasangh in 1974. Jana Sangh was founded in 1951 by Syama Prasad Mukherjee, before it became the BJP in 1980.
The BJP had previously picked Jagdeep Dhankhar, perhaps due to his Jat credentials, a community it had angered with its controversial farm laws. Dhankhar, however, proved not a very good choice and quit unceremoniously two years before his term would have ended.
CP Radhakrishnan is a non-controversial leader and will hardly annoy the Opposition, according to experts.
Political observers also see the move as a move to mollify the RSS, which has shown signs of unhappiness with the BJP in the past.
2-Project Tamil Nadu – clever choice
For the BJP, Tamil Nadu is one of the aspirational states in the South. A VP candidate from the state is one of the many strategies the BJP has deployed aimed at reaping benefits in the Tamil Nadu assembly elections 2026
Radhakrishnan’s nomination demonstrates the BJP’s sensitivity to regional caste equations and is perhaps a signal to voters in the Kongu belt, where Radhakrishnan belongs, that the BJP values their representation not just locally but also at the national level.
“Radhakrishnan, who has been associated with the RSS from an early age, is a clever choice, because the state he belongs to, Tamil Nadu, goes to the polls next year. Though the BJP on its own has a limited vote share in a state that fiercely resists its Hindi-Hindutva ideological push, the party hopes to do better in an alliance with the AIADMK,” political analyst K Nageshwar wrote in Indian Express.
3- The Caste Factor
Radhakrishnan belongs to the OBC Gounder caste, believed to politically rally behind the AIADMK, the BJP’s biggest ally in Tamil Nadu. E Palaniswami, the AIADMK chief and the former chief minister, belongs to the same community.
An OBC as VP nominee a year before elections, it would certainly further the BJP’s inclusive Hindutva narrative in the North, where the mandalisation of politics is a big factor, experts said.
Tamil Nadu BJP president Nainar Nagendran described Radhakrishnan’s nomination for the Vice Presidential race as a moment of pride for Tamils.
Nagendran said Radhakrishnan’s elevation was “a recognition of Tamil Nadu’s contribution to the nation,” thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the NDA leadership.
4-Strengthening BJP-AIADMK Alliance
The move also reinforces the alliance with AIADMK by recognising the political influence of the Gounder community
Former BJP president in Tamil Nadu K Annamalai also hail from the Gounder background. This shared caste identity has significant electoral weight, and Radhakrishnan’s elevation is seen as a move to consolidate the Gounder vote base.
“The southern states are also complaining of political marginalisation and economic discrimination, a trust deficit that is expected to widen with the ensuing delimitation of Lok Sabha constituencies. The BJP, therefore, is attempting to court voters in South India with such symbolic gestures like choosing the Vice-Presidential nominee from the region,” wrote Nageshwar who has been a professor at Osmania University and is also a former MLC
Radhakrishnan’s candidacy is primarily driven by his ideological anchoring.
5-DMK in a fix?
By picking a leader from Tamil Nadu, the BJP-led NDA has left DMK, the ruling party in Tamil Nadu and part of the INDIA bloc in a fix. Voting against a leader from Tamil Nadu a year before the assembly polls in Tamil Nadu may not be easy for the MK Stalin-led party.
