Battlelines have been drawn for the impending Vice President election sooner than expected. No one was in any doubt about the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) quickly deciding on its nominee, primarily it had to be the decision of the BJP. What caused a surprise, surely even the BJP quarters were taken aback, was the alacrity with the which the Opposition’s I.N.D.I.A combine finalised their joint candidate quickly and without any fuss.
The line-up is Mr CP Radhakrishnan, Maharashtra Governor and a senior BJP leader from Tamil Nadu before entering Raj Bhawan, versus former Supreme Court judge Justice B Sudershan Reddy who hails from Telangana (Telugu land). The contest is between a hardcore politician with a strong RSS background and a legal luminary with a firm inclination towards social, political and economic justice which the legal experts feel was apparent from his observations and judgements during the course of legal career.
The fact that both the candidates belong to South India with different political formations ruling in Telangana-Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, and of course the domicile factor that plays an important role in deciding the voting pattern, holds a promise, the contest to be interesting. Numerically the BJP-led alliance leads the field, but the political contours in these states coupled with the fact that the electors- members of the two Houses of Parliament- are not bound by any whip, makes it look interesting.