Both experience and stature make Venkaiah Naidu the right choice as Vice President
In choosing M Venkaiah Naidu as the vice presidential candidate, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has addressed many issues effectively in one stroke. The first is that of legislative experience. Given that the Vice President is also the presiding officer of the Rajya Sabha, he has to have a sound understanding of the House's functioning, including that of parliamentary procedures — a rapport with the Opposition benches is an add-on. Naidu is a three-time Rajya Sabha MP and was into his fourth term. Besides, he had been a senior Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government as well as in the incumbent regime at the Centre. In the early years of his political career, he was a member of the Andhra Pradesh legislative Assembly. In his long political career in New Delhi, Naidu also built warm relationships with leaders of various political parties. All of this gains additional importance, given that the BJP wanted a person at the helm of affairs in the Rajya Sabha where it does not have the numbers and needed an able hand to tackle the inevitable confrontation between the treasury bench and the Opposition — though this by no reasoning means that as Vice President, Naidu is expected to be partisan. The second matter the BJP has sought to address in picking Naidu is its political foray in south India. The former party president and Union Minister is perhaps the most prominent senior BJP leader from the south, where the party is seeking to expand its influence. It already has an alliance in Andhra Pradesh, is on good terms with the ruling party in Telangana, is hoping to dislodge the Congress in Karnataka in the coming Assembly election, is looking for ways to have a voice in Tamil Nadu, and is working to convert its expanding base in Kerala into seats. By choosing a person from the south as its vice presidential candidate, the BJP wants to signal to the voters its sincerity in outreach to people from the south.
The third issue has to do with the BJP 's ideological comfort level. In having a person as Vice President who, though bipartisan when he occupies the elevated post, has deep roots in the party's ideology, the BJP could not have found a more appropriate person. Since 1967, when he joined the student wing of the party, and then again from 1973, when he became part of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, Naidu has been an unfailing advocate of the moderate-Right ideology. At a time when the Union Government and the BJP are facing constant onslaughts from opposition parties over cow vigilantism, Naidu's choice sends across the message that the party honours and recognises sane voices.
The August 5 voting for the new Vice President is expected to be a contest between unequals. The Opposition's candidate, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, does not have the numbers on his side. He has virtually no legislative experience. Besides, his controversial stance on issues has done him no credit. The Shiv Sena recently reminded the nation of his open opposition to the hanging of terrorist Yakub Memon on issues of merit — even after the apex court had considered these aspects and confirmed the death sentence.