India's upcoming vice-presidential election is set to be a contest between the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the opposition INDIA bloc, as nominees of both blocs officially filed their papers. The election, scheduled for September 9, pits the NDA's candidate C P Radhakrishnan against the opposition's pick B Sudarshan Reddy.
Radhakrishnan, a veteran BJP leader and current Governor of Maharashtra, submitted his papers in the presence of senior government figures, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. The support from key NDA leaders as proposers and seconders for his four sets of nomination papers highlights the ruling coalition's unified front. Given the NDA's numerical advantage in Parliament, Radhakrishnan is widely expected to secure the victory.
Meanwhile, former Supreme Court judge B Sudarshan Reddy filed his nomination as the joint candidate of the INDIA bloc. Flanked by prominent opposition leaders such as Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, Reddy framed the election as an ideological battle, asserting that it is about upholding the principles of the Constitution and ensuring that Parliament functions with integrity. The opposition has nominated Reddy, a jurist with a strong record on social justice issues, as a counter to the NDA's candidate.