Inside India’s vice-president contest: RSS pressure, Tamil pride, and Andhra dilemma

Jagdeep Dhankhar, India’s Vice-President and number two on the warrant of official precedence, suddenly resigned midway through his term. His mystery exit necessitated an election that neither the Modi government nor the opposition wanted.

The Modi government’s pick — the current Maharashtra governor C.P. Radhakrishnan, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and BJP veteran — is perhaps a belated realisation of two things. First, it needs one of its own to manage the Rajya Sabha without an absolute BJP majority. Dhankhar, a turncoat from two parties and another ideology, may not have been an ideal choice, though when he was picked — after giving Mamata Banerjee a hard time as governor of West Bengal — it was obediently hailed as a “master stroke” by the tame media.