The BJP-NDA ruling alliance will soon have in place a vice-president of its choice in Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu. His election by a clear majority of the members of Parliament — 516 votes against 244 cast in favour of his opponent Gopalakrishna Gandhi — is a natural progression of the verdict in the 2014 general elections and the few state Assembly polls held since then. Mr Venkaiah Naidu’s anointment to a constitutional post is a measure of the venerable status he has earned after a long career in politics during which he was also the president of his party. His election may not quite be an example of what an American Senator famously said — “To the victor belongs the spoils” — but his victory does complete the triumvirate of politicians from the RSS school at the helm of India’s affairs — Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Ram Nath Kovind, and now the nation’s Vice-President.
Mr Naidu is not the first career politician to become the country’s Vice-President. Several, in fact, have gone on to become President, like V.V. Giri, R. Venkatraman, Shankar Dayal Sharma and, most recently, Pranab Mukherjee.
Where the new Vice-President may struggle most is to refrain from hard core political comments since he has been famous for pithy one-liners and for putting down the Opposition as a leading voice of the ruling party. His role as the chairperson of the Rajya Sabha will probably define the position itself and his future stature as, in the Upper House, where politics can be at its most contentious, the government is short of a majority and the Elders have been as prone to obstructing the working of Parliament as their colleagues in the Lok Sabha. In contentious times, the roles of referees are critically important.
The fact that a virtual tutorial class had to be held for BJP MPs to cast their votes in the correct manner in the secret ballot wherein the ink used in a vertical line against a candidate’s name had to be made by an “official” pen does little credit to the people’s representatives. However, the number of voters in the poll, close to 98 per cent, was somewhat heartening considering the weak attendance records, especially of some nominated MPs. The atmosphere in which the poll was held could not be faulted either, coming in sharp contrast as it did with the shrill polemics of the parliamentary debates of the time. The loser seemed to draw heart from the fact that he believed he got more votes than indicated by the political affiliations. The ruling alliance may have been pleased with a massive mandate by two to one indicating a measure of cross-voting.
