Expressing satisfaction over his nomination as the INDIA bloc’s Vice-Presidential candidate, B Sudershan Reddy on Wednesday clarified that the contest should not be seen as “Radhakrishnan versus Reddy”.
Speaking to the media here, Reddy said, “I am happy about my nomination. If it was an unpleasant one, why would I undertake this journey and proceed further?”
“It is not Radhakrishnan versus Reddy. I don’t think even Radhakrishnan treats it as ‘Reddy versus Radhakrishnan’. At present, there are two candidates. We do not know there may be a third candidate tomorrow. Since it is not a general election, in that sense, the Vice President of India is to be elected by the members of the parliament. Therefore, there is no question of any whip by political parties asking that you vote for this man, or you don’t vote for that man. It is the wisdom and their individual assessment about the relative merits and demerits of the candidates,” he said.
Commenting on Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s remarks calling the upcoming VP elections as “ideological fight”, Reddy said the INDIA bloc and the NDA represent two different ideologies.
“What’s wrong with this? If not NDA, the dominant political party in India represents a particular ideology. There is nothing new. It is not hidden. Kharge believes in an entirely different ideology, therefore he made that statement. What is wrong with that statement?” he said.
Announcing Reddy’s candidature, Kharge has posted on X, “This Vice Presidential contest is an ideological battle. All Opposition parties have nominated Shri B. Sudershan Reddy garu as their joint candidate for the position of the Vice President of India.”
Reddy would file his nomination on Thursday. Born on July 8, 1946, Justice Reddy started his legal career in 1971 after he registered himself as an advocate with the Bar Council of Andhra Pradesh. Previously, he held the position of Government Pleader at the Andhra Pradesh High Court from 1988 to 1990 and later served as Additional Standing Counsel for the Central Government in 1990.
In 1995, Reddy was elevated to the position of permanent judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court. He later became Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court in 2005 and was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2008, where he served until his retirement in 2011. Recently, the former Supreme Court judge was appointed to lead an 11-member high-level independent committee formed by the Revanth Reddy government to carry out a thorough verification, analysis, and in-depth study of the caste census in Telangana.