Vice Presidential polls | Confident BJP reaps fruits of its strategy with thumping win of C P Radhakrishnan

BJP leaders, who were assured that their candidate will have a smooth win with just the NDA numbers, managed to get much more. Radhakrishnan managed to win 452 votes, even when 15 votes were invalid. This points at cross-voting in his favour.

New Delhi: The BJP, confident of the victory of NDA candidate CP Radhakrishnan, had already made preparations for celebrations a day ahead of the polling. Hours before the results were declared, preparations for celebrations had begun at the residence of union food and consumer affairs minister Pralhad Joshi.

Later, after Radhakrishnan was announced the Vice President-elect, the prime minister went to Joshi’s residence to meet him. Home minister Amit Shah and defence minister Rajnath Singh, too, greeted the along with the prime minister.

BJP leaders, who were assured that their candidate will have a smooth win with just the NDA numbers, managed to get much more. While they had 437 MPs across both the Houses, Radhakrishnan managed to win 452 votes, even when 15 votes were invalid. This points at cross-voting in his favour.

To prepare for the polls, the BJP had carried out a mock drill of the polls during the three-day MP workshop since the polls for the VP are done on a basis of first and second preferences. The party had also tasked Joshi with teaching TDP MPs how to cast their votes since many of the party’s lawmakers being young and first time voters in a VP election.

The BJP had also entrusted several union ministers with the responsibility of ensuring votes. Union ministers Shivraj Chouhan, Kiren Rijiju, ML Khattar, Dharmendra Pradhan, Piyush Goyal, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Nityanand Rai, Bhupender Yadav, Mansukh Mandavia as well as Joshi were given the task of taking along several sets of MPs. These lawmakers were asked to report to their respective leaders' houses around 8-8:30 am in the morning, ahead of the polling which began at 10 am. The MPs reached their designated leader’s house for breakfast from where they were taken to Parliament by the dedicated minister.

Sources in the BJP said that a senior South leader was entrusted with reaching out to South parties, especially the YSRCP and BRS. YSRCP had supported the NDA candidate despite the INDIA candidate being Telugu. BRS had abstained from voting. A senior party leader had also reached out to MPs within the Samajwadi Party.