Vice President Election: Will Telugu Pride Sway Votes?

India is poised to elect its 15th Vice President today, with polling underway in Parliament to decide between the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) candidate, Maharashtra Governor C.P. Radhakrishnan, and the opposition INDIA bloc’s nominee, former Supreme Court Justice B. Sudershan Reddy. The high-stakes contest, triggered by the sudden resignation of former Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar in July, has sparked intense political maneuvering, with the Congress-led opposition leveraging a “Telugu pride” angle to challenge the BJP-led NDA’s numerical advantage. Voting began at 10 AM and will continue until 5 PM, with results expected by late evening.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi cast the first vote, sharing on X, “Voted in the 2025 Vice President election,” before departing to inspect flood-hit regions in Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. Both candidates expressed confidence in their victory. Radhakrishnan, a seasoned BJP leader from Tamil Nadu, framed his candidacy as a “victory for Indian nationalism,” aligning with the vision of a “Viksit Bharat” (Developed India). Meanwhile, Justice Reddy, a Telangana native, positioned the election as a “fight for the Constitution,” aiming to “awaken people’s conscience” and thanking supporters for their overwhelming response.

The opposition has injected regional sentiment into the contest, with Congress MP Renuka Chowdhury urging the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), which announced it would abstain, to back Reddy due to his Telugu roots. “It’s a matter of shame that BRS isn’t voting for a Telugu-speaking candidate who has served Telangana,” Chowdhury said, highlighting Reddy’s judicial legacy, including landmark rulings like the 2011 ban on the Salwa Judum militia. The BRS’s boycott, alongside the Biju Janata Dal’s (BJD) abstention, reduces the electoral college to 770 MPs, setting the majority mark at 386 votes.

Also Read: India Will Pick New Vice President Today

The NDA, with 427 MPs and additional support from the YSR Congress’s 11 MPs, holds a clear edge over the INDIA bloc’s 315 votes, even with potential backing from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi. However, the opposition hopes for cross-voting, a phenomenon that benefited Dhankhar in 2022 when he secured 528 votes. To prevent defections, the BJP has implemented a “man-to-man marking” strategy, with MPs from southern states monitored by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi and those from Uttar Pradesh overseen by Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal. Other senior leaders, including Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Housing Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, are tasked with ensuring party discipline.

The election follows Dhankhar’s abrupt exit, reportedly due to health reasons, though sources suggest tensions with the government over his acceptance of an opposition motion to impeach a Delhi High Court judge played a role. The NDA’s choice of Radhakrishnan, a Tamil Nadu native, is seen as a strategic move ahead of the state’s 2026 assembly elections, while the opposition’s selection of Reddy, instead of a Tamil candidate like DMK’s Tiruchi Siva, aims to appeal to Telugu-speaking voters and parties like the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), a key NDA ally.

With secret ballots allowing MPs to vote freely, the possibility of cross-voting keeps the outcome uncertain despite the NDA’s numerical advantage. The opposition’s focus on Reddy’s judicial credentials and regional identity, coupled with accusations of electoral irregularities, has framed the contest as an ideological battle. As India awaits the results, the election underscores deep political divisions and the strategic use of regional pride in a high-stakes constitutional race.

Also Read: Congress Criticizes Jagan Reddy for Backing NDA Candidate