# C.P. Radhakrishnan elected India’s 15th vice president after parliamentary vote
C.P. Radhakrishnan has been elected as India’s 15th vice president after defeating opposition nominee Justice B. Sudershan Reddy in a parliamentary contest, according to India Today’s live result coverage.
The result gave Radhakrishnan 452 first-preference votes, compared with 300 for Reddy. Returning Officer P.C. Mody announced the tally after 767 of 788 eligible members of parliament cast ballots, a turnout of 98.2 percent. The count also produced 752 valid votes and 15 invalid ones.
Radhakrishnan’s victory gives the governing alliance another major constitutional post and brings him to the Rajya Sabha chair at a time when parliament remains politically charged. The vice president presides over the upper house and plays a central role in the flow, tone and procedural discipline of debate. That makes the office significant well beyond its ceremonial label.
The election also produced a clear political message. India Today reported congratulatory reactions from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, President Droupadi Murmu, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and other senior figures in the ruling camp. Those responses framed the result as both a personal win for Radhakrishnan and a confirmation of the alliance’s parliamentary strength.
The opposition, meanwhile, focused less on the loss and more on the scale of the contest. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge congratulated the winner while praising Reddy’s campaign. Congress MP Jairam Ramesh called the opposition’s showing respectable and argued that the ideological battle behind the vote would continue. Reddy himself extended congratulations to the winner, according to the live coverage.
There was also speculation about cross-voting or the origin of the invalid ballots. The source excerpt mentioned that the ruling side had 15 fewer votes than the figure claimed by Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, and that one possibility was that all 15 invalid votes came from the opposition bloc. But that remains speculation rather than a verified conclusion, so it should be treated cautiously.
What is firmly established is the arithmetic. Radhakrishnan crossed the threshold comfortably and won by a margin that left little doubt about the result. The scale of the victory matters because vice-presidential races in India are not only about personality but also about how well each side can mobilize MPs in a secret ballot.
The political setting was already tense because of the role the vice president is expected to play in a divided Rajya Sabha. Whoever wins the post inherits the task of managing the house at a time when ruling-party discipline and opposition resistance both matter intensely. That gives the office immediate institutional consequences, especially in a parliament where procedural choices can become politically loaded.
India Today’s coverage also noted that outgoing vice president Jagdeep Dhankhar sent a congratulatory letter to Radhakrishnan after leaving office in July. That gesture emphasized continuity in a role that is meant to stand above day-to-day party politics even when the election itself is partisan.
Radhakrishnan’s ascent to the office also continues a pattern in which the ruling bloc uses its numerical advantage to secure key state institutions. The vice-presidential contest is less dramatic than a general election, but it still signals who controls the machinery of parliament.
The result leaves the opposition with a familiar choice: to accept a numerical defeat while claiming a stronger ideological case, or to focus on whatever vote-share improvement it believes it made. India Today’s report suggests it has already chosen the second path.
For now, the outcome is clear. India has a new vice president, elected by parliament, and the governing alliance has added another senior constitutional office to its ledger.
