Flutter in Tamil Nadu as BJP Picks Tamilian for VP

Chennai: The NDA picking Maharashtra Governor C P Radhakrishnan as its nominee for the Vice President’s post that fell vacant following the resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar has created a flutter in the State political scene with the BJP and its allies wanting the DMK coalition to support a ‘fellow Tamilian,’ giving rise to a demand for the nomination of another Tamilian by the opposition INDIA alliance.

Though the INDIA coalition has not yet announced its candidate for the Vice President election, scheduled to be held on September 9, several leaders in the opposition camp were not happy with the credentials of Radhakrishnan, seeing him as a RSS member, which triggered a speculation that the rival candidate, too, might belong to Tamil Nadu.

While the BJP leaders in Tamil Nadu and also the general secretary of its ally, the AIADMK, Edappadi K Palaniswami, openly exhorted the DMK to support Radhakrishnan, many leaders in the DMK and Congress in the State were not in favour of supporting him just become he belonged to the State.

DMK former MP and spokesperson T K S Elangovan and Congress MP Manickam Tagore said Radhakrishnan was a hardcore RSS pracharak and his election would not do good to Tamil Nadu.

However, BJP State president Nainar Nagendran wanted the MPs from Tamil Nadu to unanimously support the son of the soil. He gave the example of Navin Patnaik unconditionally supporting the candidature of Droupadi Murmu for the President’s post because she was from Odisha. He wanted Stalin to take a similar stand now.

Palaniswami was talking to media persons after offering worship at the famous Annamalaiyar temple in Tiruvannamalai when he greeted Radhakrishan on his selection as the NDA nominee. It was a matter of pride for the State and MPs irrespective of party affiliation should support him in the election, he said.

Former governor Tamilisai Soundararjan told the media before taking a flight to New Delhi that political parties in Tamil Nadu should back Radhakrishnan. Even PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss said his selection of Vice President nominee by the NDA was the right choice.

With the demand for the INDIA coalition to select a candidate from Tamil Nadu to fight Radhakrishnan gaining ground several names were suggested. One of them was of former ISRO scientist Mylsami Annadurai as the BJP leaders recalled the DMK not supporting A P J Abdul Kalam when the BJP fielded him for the president’s post.

Since five time Rajya Sabha MP, Trichy Siva, represented the DMK at the INDIA coalition meeting on Monday, his name started floating around as the potential nominee by the opposition since with him as rival the NDA would not able to invoke the ‘Tamilian’ sentiment to seek support for Radhakrishnan.

Carried away by the rumours, some news portals even started carrying Siva’s profile with titles like ‘Who is the Siva’ and so on. However, it is too early to speculate on the candidate because it is not clear if the INDIA coalition would field its candidate for Vice President as the chances of winning is quite remote going by the poll arithmetic.

Though the NDA has a clear advantage in the elections, in the event of some allies of the BJP deciding to not support Radhakrishnan for whatever reason, the victory of the opposition candidate cannot be fully ruled out particularly in the backdrop of allegations of ‘vote theft’ and so on against the Union Government.

Since Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and some other leaders have expressed a desire to not let the NDA have a walkover, there could be an INDIA coalition in the fray. But who the candidate will be is the big question.