Stage set for C P Radhakrishan's swearing-in as Vice President on Friday

New Delhi: CP Radhakrishnan is set to take oath as Vice President on Friday (September 12) 10am in a ceremony formally administered by President Droupadi Murmu.

Rashtrapati Bhawan, in a communique, said that the Gujarat governor Devvrat Acharya has been given additional charge of Maharashtra after Radhakrishnan remitted office. 

Opposition leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge are among the invitees in the ceremony.

One of Radhakrishnan's first engagement would be a meeting with Rajya Sabha floor leaders at 12 PM. Sources said Radhakrishnan has invited all leaders for the meeting.

“Consequent upon demitting the office of Governor of Maharashtra by Shri C P Radhakrishnan, due to his election as the Vice-President of India, the President of India has appointed Acharya Devvrat, Governor of Gujarat, to discharge the functions of the Governor of Maharashtra, in addition to his own duties,” the Rashtrapati Bhawan said. 

On Wednesday, the Election Commission certified the election declaring Radhakrishnan as the 15th Vice President of India.

Radhakrishnan, who was set to win with at least 437 votes, bagged 452 votes indicating cross voting by the I.N.D.I.A. bloc MPs. Its candidate Sudharshan Reddy who got 300 votes and lost the elections by a margin of 152 votes.  

A total of 781 votes were to be cast, keeping in mind vacancies in either houses, but 14 MPs abstained from voting, including BRS, BJD and SAD’s MPs as well as two independent MPs. The Opposition’s prospects, which was set to bag at least 315 votes, was marred by cross-voting. 

A senior BJP minister said that of the 15 votes that were invalid, 10 belonged to the NDA. The BJP had carried out a mock drill for its MPs in the party’s three-day workshop preceding the VP polls.

In that, an MP had fumbled but was corrected by leaders present. “If we take into account the number of invalid votes, our total count would have risen above 460. The MPs listened to their conscience,” the leader said. 

The election was necessitated by the unexpected exit of Jagdeep Dhankar who resigned on the first day of the Monsoon Session of the Parliament.

The immediate fallout that led to the resignation was Dhankar allowing an impeachment motion against Justice Yashwant Verma of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha which took the BJP by surprise. 

Dhankar’s relationship with the BJP was strained for a while as he had been taking decisions on his own. Miffed by the development, BJP leaders skipped a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee Dhankar had called that day and instead sent in a sealed envelope which eventually led to his exit. Though BJP leaders remain tight lipped about the content, there is speculation that they were mulling an impeachment of Dhankar himself and over 132 signatures were collected.