⁠Who Is CP Radhakrishnan? All You Need To Know About BJP’s Pick For Vice-President

BJP on Sunday named CP Radhakrishnan as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate for the upcoming vice-presidential election. He is currently the Governor of Maharashtra.

Radhakrishnan has had a long association with the RSS. He has also won the Lok Sabha seat from Coimbatore twice. He has earned the moniker of "Modi of Tamil Nadu" due to his contributions toward party-building in the southern state.

Chandrapuram Ponnusamy Radhakrishnan was born on Oct. 20, 1957, in Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu. He has a degree in business administration. Radhakrishnan began his political career as a 'swayamsevak' in the RSS. By 1974, he had already become a state executive committee member in the Bharatiya Janasangh.

Radhakrishnan rose to prominence in the BJP during the 1990s. He was appointed state secretary of the Tamil Nadu unit in 1996. He went on to contest and win the Coimbatore seat in the 1998 Lok Sabha elections with more than 1.5 lakh votes.

He has also been a member of committees that took care of public sector undertakings, finance and a probe into the stock exchange scam. Radhakrishnan was also a member of the first parliamentary delegation to Taiwan, and has addressed the UN General Assembly in 2004.

From 2004 to 2007, Radhakrishnan served as the BJP’s state president in Tamil Nadu. During this time, he led a 19,000-km ratha yatra that lasted 93 days. The yatra highlighted issues such as river-linking, a uniform civil code and the fight against untouchability. He also led two 'padayatras' for other social and political causes.

Apart from his legislative background, Radhakrishnan has held multiple administrative positions. In 2016, he was appointed chairman of the Coir Board in Kochi. He was later entrusted with overseeing the BJP’s organisational affairs in Kerala at the national level between 2020 and 2022.

Radhakrishnan became the Governor of Jharkhand in February 2023. Later, he was also given additional charge as Governor of Telangana and Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry. In July 2024, he took oath as Governor of Maharashtra.

An avid sportsman during his early life, he was a college champion at table tennis and a long-distance runner. He has also participated in cricket and volleyball during his student days.