970x125
The BJP on Sunday placed a familiar southern figure into the national spotlight, naming Maharashtra Governor C P Radhakrishnan as the NDA’s candidate for the September 9 Vice-Presidential polls.
970x125
The announcement by BJP national president J P Nadda after the party’s Parliamentary Board meeting illustrated the party’s confidence in a man long regarded as both disciplined and quietly effective. Bringing decades of political apprenticeship, organisational experience, and a reputation for moderation, Radhakrishnan’s elevation follows a political career that has often seemed at once understated and strategic.
In February 2024, as the Governor of Jharkhand, he set a tone that stood apart from many of his peers. Declaring that Governors should transcend political affiliations, he cast himself as a bridge between state and Central governments, a figure who, in his words, would lay aside partisan ambition in favour of development.
“His focus on improving the lives of tribal and underprivileged communities in Jharkhand also carried an implicit rebuke of predecessors accused of blurring Constitutional boundaries, at a moment when southern states were bristling against activist gubernatorial interventions,” said a senior RSS leader from Tamil Nadu, a long-time colleague.
Radhakrishnan tried to gain the reputation of a no-nonsense, results-driven politician. At the time of his elevation as Jharkhand Governor in February 2023, a senior leader of the DMK, the BJP’s chief rival in Tamil Nadu, told The Indian Express that Radhakrishnan was “a good man in the wrong party,” even likening him to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. “For good or bad, he is one nice person in the BJP here,” the leader had said, illustrating that his appeal could transcend the political divide.
The arc of his political life reaches back to his teenage years. Born in Tiruppur in western Tamil Nadu, Radhakrishnan joined the RSS at the age of 16 and rose steadily through the BJP’s ranks. In 1998 and 1999, he won the Coimbatore Lok Sabha seat with commanding margins, which were the highest in the state at the time. His success in western Tamil Nadu, long a challenging terrain for the BJP, gave him both credibility and clout within the party as well as the RSS. He eventually went on to serve as the party’s Tamil Nadu president from 2004 to 2007 and also became a National Executive member of the BJP.
Ideological, yet pragmatic
Colleagues often describe him as a man steeped in the Sangh Parivar’s ideological framework, yet pragmatic in execution. His straightforward demeanour, combined with a relatively clean image, set him apart in a political culture often marred by personal rivalries and corruption scandals.
Yet, Radhakrishnan has not shied from controversy. When Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin called for the “annihilation” of Sanatan Dharma in 2023, Radhakrishnan, though the Jharkhand Governor at the time, countered sharply, warning that those who tried to destroy Hindu traditions “will perish by their own act.” He dismissed Udhayanidhi as “a child” dabbling in matters beyond his depth, drawing attention from both admirers and detractors.
His elevation as Governor earlier had coincided with the then BJP state president K Annamalai’s efforts to consolidate influence in Coimbatore and the wider Kongu belt, a signal that the party valued Radhakrishnan’s politics even as younger leaders were being pushed into the same space.
For many BJP insiders, Radhakrishnan’s governorship in Jharkhand was meant as recognition for long service to the party and the RSS, and his subsequent transfer to Maharashtra in July 2024 and now his nomination for vice-president mark an unmistakable ascent. In contrast to many BJP Governors such as R N Ravi in Tamil Nadu, who are accused of overstepping into partisan terrain, Radhakrishnan’s own words sought to project neutrality.
Following his stint in Jharkhand, Radhakrishnan took charge as Maharashtra Governor last year, close on the heels of the NDA’s poor show in the Lok Sabha elections and months ahead of the Assembly polls. His tenure in the Raj Bhavan in Mumbai has largely been non-controversial as he continued his trend of maintaining cordial relations across the political spectrum. Even when the controversial Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill was introduced in the Assembly, he ensured that he met Opposition leaders who sought his appointment and urged him not to clear it.
On the other hand, many in the political circles in Tamil Nadu who oppose the BJP and the RSS observe that Radhakrishnan’s balancing act — navigating loyalty to the BJP, adherence to Sangh ideology, and Constitutional restraint — endowed him with a distinctive presence in the party.
— With ENS Mumbai inputs
970x125
