New Delhi: Maharashtra Governor CP Radhakrishnan, the ruling NDA’s candidate, filed his nomination papers on Wednesday for the election to India’s second-highest constitutional post, scheduled to be held on September 9.
Radhakrishnan was accompanied by senior BJP ministers and NDA partners to the new Parliament building after paying tributes at the Prerna Sthal in the Parliament House complex. Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the delegation of coalition leaders.
The nomination was filed at the office of Rajya Sabha Secretary General P C Modi, who is also the returning officer for the election. In the first set of nominations, four sets of papers were filed, with the main proposal moved by Prime Minister Modi. Leaders of all NDA allies, including AIADMK’s M Thambi Durai, were present at the time.
The opposition candidate, former Supreme Court judge B. Sudershan Reddy, will file his nomination on Thursday. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, and other opposition leaders are scheduled to meet him at the Central Hall of the old Parliament building today.
The election has become a contest between two leaders from south India. Radhakrishnan, a Tamil Nadu-born RSS leader, currently serves as Maharashtra’s Governor, while Sudershan Reddy, from Andhra Pradesh, is known for chairing an expert committee that termed Telangana’s OBC caste survey as scientific.
Before filing his nomination, Radhakrishnan paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi and other eminent personalities at Prerna Sthal in the Parliament complex. Union ministers and NDA leaders were present alongside him.
