With the announcement of former Supreme Court judge and the first Lokayukta of Goa, B Sudershan Reddy, as joint Opposition nominee who will take on National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate CP Radhakrishnan in the September 9 vice presidential election, the contest has emerged as a “south versus south”. NDA nominee CP Radhakrishnan hails from Tamil Nadu while Sudershan Reddy is from Telangana. The vice presidential contest is now billed as an ideological battle by the INDIA bloc, as numbers favour the ruling BJP-led alliance.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge announced the candidature of Reddy after meeting with INDIA bloc leaders. Reading out a joint statement of the Opposition parties, Kharge, who is the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, said Reddy is one of India’s most “distinguished and progressive jurists”. The INDIA bloc’s decision, announced by Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, comes after several rounds of discussion during which Opposition leaders brainstormed about names acceptable to all parties in the bloc.
The Opposition’s move to force a contest is largely an optics game to ensure that the BJP does not get a walkover. A contest, however tilted, will provide the Opposition to showcase its unity at a time when it is pushing hard to corner the Government on the issue of alleged poll irregularities.
There is another subplot in the Opposition’s choice. The BJP had put DMK in a tricky spot by choosing a Tamil Nadu face for the top post. Now, BJP’s key ally TDP faces a similar dilemma. Will it support the NDA pick or a son of Andhra? The Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSRCP and K Chandrashekar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi also face the same choice now: to back the NDA candidate or the jurist from Andhra.
Notably, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has welcomed two-time Coimbatore MP Radhakrishnan’s candidature. However, he is yet to react to Sudarshan Reddy’s candidature. Meanwhile, INDIA bloc ally, DMK called the election an ideological fight. Four of the total 16 elections held so far to the office of vice-president were won uncontested. Three elections were won due to rejection of nomination papers of the rival candidates and one due to lack of any opponent.
Maharashtra Governor Radhakrishnan (67) is a senior BJP leader who served as a two-term member of the Lok Sabha from Coimbatore during the tenure of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and later, went on to lead the party in Tamil Nadu. Reddy (79). Reddy retired from the Supreme Court in July 2011 and is known for several landmark judgments criticising the then Union Government for showing slack in probing black-money cases. He had also declared Salwa Judum, appointed by the Chhattisgarh government, unconstitutional.
Reddy was born on July 8, 1946, and enrolled as an Advocate with the Bar Council of Andhra Pradesh on December 27, 1971. He practiced in writ and civil matters before the Andhra Pradesh High Court and served as Government Pleader from 1988 to 1990. In 1990, he briefly held the position of Additional Standing Counsel for the Central Government, and also worked as Legal Adviser and Standing Counsel for Osmania University.
Justice Reddy was elevated as a permanent Judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on May 2, 1995. He went on to serve as Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court from December 5, 2005, until his appointment as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India on January 12, 2007. As a Supreme Court judge, Reddy had ordered the constitution of a special investigation team to take all steps for bringing back unaccounted monies unlawfully kept in bank accounts abroad. Bringing back black money deposited in foreign banks was a key electoral plank of the BJP ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha election, which saw Narendra Modi becoming the prime minister. He retired from the Supreme Court on July 8, 2011.
The NDA is projecting Radhakrishnan as an untainted leader with rich political and administrative experience for the vice-president’s office and maintaining that this would also prove useful as the chairman of the Rajya Sabha. Radhakrishnan was the chairman of the All India Coir Board from 2016 to 2020, a period when coir exports witnessed a significant jump.
The Congress-led INDIA bloc is projecting Reddy as a consistent and courageous champion of social, economic and political justice. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge described the vice-presidential election as an ideological battle. The vice-presidential election, necessitated by the sudden resignation of incumbent Jagdeep Dhankhar last month, will be held on September 9. The last date for filing the nomination is August 21.