C. P. Radhakrishnan | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2025 | |
| Vice President of India | |
| Assumed office 12 September 2025 | |
| President | Droupadi Murmu |
| Prime Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Preceded by | Jagdeep Dhankhar |
| Governor of Maharashtra | |
| In office 31 July 2024 – 11 September 2025 | |
| Chief Minister | Eknath Shinde Devendra Fadnavis |
| Preceded by | Ramesh Bais |
| Succeeded by | Acharya Devvrat(additional charge) |
| Governor of Jharkhand | |
| In office 18 February 2023 – 30 July 2024 | |
| Chief Minister | Hemant Soren Champai Soren |
| Preceded by | Ramesh Bais |
| Succeeded by | Santosh Gangwar |
| Governor of Telangana | |
Additional charge | |
| In office 20 March 2024 – 30 July 2024 | |
| Chief Minister | Revanth Reddy |
| Preceded by | Tamilisai Soundararajan |
| Succeeded by | Jishnu Dev Varma |
| Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry | |
Additional charge | |
| In office 22 March 2024 – 6 August 2024 | |
| Chief Minister | N. Rangaswamy |
| Preceded by | Tamilisai Soundararajan |
| Succeeded by | Kuniyil Kailashnathan |
| Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha | |
| In office 3 March 1998 – 16 May 2004 | |
| Preceded by | M. Ramanathan |
| Succeeded by | K. Subbarayan |
| Constituency | Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu |
| State President ofBharatiya Janata Party, Tamil Nadu | |
| In office 12 May 2003 – 22 September 2006 | |
| Preceded by | S. P. Kirubanidhi |
| Succeeded by | La. Ganesan |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Chandrapuram Ponnusami Radhakrishnan (1957-05-04)4 May 1957 (age 68) Tiruppur,Tamil Nadu, India |
| Political party | Bharatiya Janata Party |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Parents |
|
| Residence | Vice President's Enclave, New Delhi |
| Alma mater | V. O. Chidambaram College (BBA) |
| Occupation | |
Chandrapuram Ponnusami Radhakrishnan (born 4 May 1957) is an Indian politician serving as theVice President of India since 12 September 2025. He previously served as theGovernor of various states, and as amember of parliament in Lok Sabha.
Born inTiruppur inTamil Nadu in 1957, Radhakrishnan obtained hisBachelor of Business Administration degree fromV. O. Chidambaram College inThoothukudi. He has been associated with theRashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh andBharatiya Jana Sangh since his youth. In 1974, he became part of the Jan Sangh's state executive committee in Tamil Nadu, and later became part of theBharatiya Janata Party (BJP), when it was founded in 1980.Representing the BJP, Radhakrishnan was elected to theLok Sabha twice fromCoimbatore in the1998 and1999 general elections. Since then, he had unsuccessfully contested three general elections from the same constituency in2004,2014, and2019. He served as the state president of theTamil Nadu unit of the BJP from 2003 to 2006.Radhakrishnan was appointed as theGovernor of Jharkhand in February 2023 and served in the position till July 2024. He also held additional charges as theGovernor of Telangana andLieutenant Governor of Puducherry in 2024. He served as theGovernor of Maharashtra from July 2024 to September 2025. Following the resignation of the vice presidentJagdeep Dhankhar in August 2025, Radhakrishnan was named as the candidate of theNational Democratic Alliance for the2025 Indian vice presidential election. In the elections held on 9 September 2025, he defeatedB. Sudarshan Reddy and was sworn in as the vice president on 12 September 2025.He is the 17th vice president of India.
Radhakrishnan was born on 4 May 1957 to C. K. Ponnusamy and K. Janaki inTiruppur,Tamil Nadu.[1][2] He belongs to theGounder community. He was reportedly named after the then-incumbentfirst Vice-President of India,Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and co-incidentally he waselected for a second term just a week after his birth, leading to a belief of some shared destiny. He received aBachelor of Business Administration degree fromV. O. Chidambaram College inThoothukudi.[3][4] Since the age of 16, he has been associated with theRashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and theBharatiya Jana Sangh.[5][6]
In 1974, Radhakrishnan was elected to the Jan Sangh's state executive committee. He joined theBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after it was founded in 1980, and became an aide toAtal Bihari Vajpayee.[7]
In the1998 elections, Radhakrishnan was elected to theLok Sabha, representingCoimbatore. The election was held in the aftermath of the1998 Coimbatore bombings.[8] He defeated theDravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) candidate by a margin of 144,676 votes. He was one of three BJP candidates to win in Tamil Nadu as a part of the party's alliance with theAll India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK).[9] Representing the BJP, he won the1999 elections from the same constitutency as a part of the DMK-led alliance.[10][11] He was part of a parliamentary delegation to theUnited Nations, and addressed the 58th session of theUnited Nations General Assembly on 20 October 2003.[12] He was a member of the parliamentary committee for public sector undertakings from 1998 to 2004 and a member of the parliamentary consultative committee for finance.[6]
Ahead of the2004 general elections, he was among the BJP's state leaders who worked on forming an alliance with the AIADMK in 2004 after the DMK exited from the BJP-ledNational Democratic Alliance (NDA).[5][13] His tenure in theParliament of India ended following his defeat in the 2004 general election toK. Subbarayan of theCommunist Party of India.[6][14] He was appointed as the state president of theTamil Nadu unit of the BJP in 2004 and served in the position till 2006. As the president, he took arath yatra for 93 days, advocating the linkage of Indian rivers, eradicating untouchability, and campaigning against terrorism in India. He covered all the parliamentary constituencies of Tamil Nadu during his journey, which faced criticism from the ruling DMK. He was also involved in the organising of theKerala state unit of the BJP during the late 2000s.[15][16] In 2012, he faced court arrest inMettupalayam for protesting inaction against culprits who had assaulted an RSS activist.[17]
Radhakrishnan was announced as the BJP candidate for Coimbatore in the2014 general elections. He secured second place after polling 389,701 votes, the highest among the BJP candidates in Tamil Nadu. He contested as the party's candidate from the same constituency in the2019 general election and lost toP. R. Natarajan of the CPIM.[5][18] He was the chairman of theCoir Board of India, which comes under theMinistry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, from 2016 to 2020.[6][19] He also served as a member of the BJP's national executive.[6][20]
On 12 February 2023,presidentDroupadi Murmu appointed Radhakrishnan as thegovernor of Jharkhand, succeedingRamesh Bais, and he took office on 18 February 2023.[21][22] Following the resignation ofTamilisai Soundararajan, he held additional responsibilities as thegovernor of Telangana and aslieutenant Governor of Puducherry from 19 March 2024.[23][24][25] On 27 July 2024, he was appointed asgovernor of Maharashtra.[26]Jishnu Dev Varma,Santosh Gangwar, andKuniyil Kailashnathan , took over his positions in Telangana, Jharkhand, and Puducherry, respectively.[27][28][29][30] Radhakrishnan resigned asgovernor of Maharashtra following his election as theVice President of India.
On 17 August 2025, following the resignation ofJagdeep Dhankhar, BJP national presidentJ. P. Nadda announced Radhakrishnan's candidacy in the2025 vice presidential election.[31] He was endorsed by all NDA member parties, including theAIADMK,JD(U),NCP,TDP,SS, and non-member parties, such as theYSRCP.[32][33] He ran againstIndian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) candidateB. Sudarshan Reddy.[34] The polling and results for elections were announced on 9 September 2025 and he emerged victorious defeating Reddy by 116 votes. He polled 452 electoral votes.[35] He took oath as the 15th Vice President on 12 September 2025.[36]
Radhakrishnan married R. Sumathi on 25 November 1985, and they have two children.[1] He practised long-distance running, and playedcricket,table tennis, andvolleyball.[37][38]
| Elections | Alliance | Result | Vote percentage | Opposition | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Alliance | Vote percentage | ||||||
| 2025 | NDA | Won | 57.3% | B. Sudarshan Reddy | INDIA | 42.6% | ||
| Elections | Lok Sabha | Constituency | Political party | Result | Vote percentage | Opposition | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Political party | Vote percentage | ||||||||||
| 1998 | 12th | Coimbatore | BJP |  | Won | 55.85% | K. R. Subbian | DMK |  | 37.86% | ||
| 1999 | 13th | 49.21% | R. Nallakannu | CPI |  | 43.02% | ||||||
| 2004 | 14th | Lost | 38.74% | K. Subbarayan | 57.46% | |||||||
| 2014 | 16th | 33.12% | P. Nagarajan | AIADMK |  | 36.69% | ||||||
| 2019 | 17th | 31.34% | P. R. Natarajan | CPI(M) | _election_symbol_-_Hammer_Sickle_and_Star.svg) | 45.66% | ||||||
| Elections | Position | Term in office | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assumed office | Left office | Time in office | ||
| 2025 | Chairman | 12 September 2025 | Incumbent | 72 days |
| Elections | Position | Elected constituency | Term in office | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assumed office | Left office | Time in office | |||
| 1998 | Member of Parliament | Coimbatore | 23 March 1998 | 26 April 1999 | 1 year, 34 days |
| 1999 | 20 October 1999 | 6 February 2004 | 4 years, 109 days | ||
Media related toC. P. Radhakrishnan at Wikimedia Commons
Quotations related toC. P. Radhakrishnan at Wikiquote| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Governor of Jharkhand 2023–2024 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry 2024 | Succeeded by |
| Governor of Telangana 2024 | Succeeded by | |
| Preceded by | Governor of Maharashtra 2024–2025 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Vice President of India 2025–present | Incumbent |
| Lok Sabha | ||
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forCoimbatore 1998–2004 | Succeeded by |
| Postholders |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Elections | ||
