After the pomp and predictability of the presidential polls, parties are now gearing up to elect the Vice-President of India. Against the erudite Gopalkrishna Gandhi, author of a play in verse on Dara Shikoh, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has pitted their man of vapid verses, Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu. Given his party’s supremacy in the electoral college, Naidu’s election is a foregone prospect. The Vice-President is elected by the members of the electoral college consisting of MPs in both Houses of Parliament in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. The present strength of electors is 790, including 233 elected members of the Rajya Sabha and 12 nominated members, and 543 members of the Lok Sabha. In the political alignments already formed during the just-concluded presidential election, the BJP estimates over 527 voters choosing Naidu, which is set to give him a thumping two-thirds majority to be elected Vice-President.
The former BJP president’s selection as VP is not without its merits for all the mirth he causes by his signature rhymes and limericks. Sample his call to investors in Jharkhand — “State is beautiful, People are dutiful, Resources are plentiful, Brand ambassador is powerful, Chief Minister is mindful, Prime Minister is helpful…”; or his response to the possibility of being BJP’s VP candidate — “I don’t want to be Rashtrapati. I don’t want to be Up-Rashtrapati. I am happy to be Usha’s (his wife) pati”. From the political powerhouse that BJP president Amit Shah has turned the ruling party into, Naidu’s candidature has a message for the southern States. The BJP’s southern ambitions have grown in the last three years during which it performed better than ever before. The BJP in 2014 Lok Sabha elections contested 66 seats in the southern States of Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and won 21 of them, a strike rate of over 30 per cent. The party’s southern expansion decidedly gets a symbolic boost with a southerner as Vice-President. Secondly, while statesmanship and erudition are desirable traits for an occupant of the high office, the most critical aspect of his functioning is as chairman of the Rajya Sabha. And here, by virtue of his 25 years’ experience in the Upper House in both treasury and Opposition benches, Naidu scores over his opponent.
Given the sharply polarising, even bitter discourses which have come to dominate parliamentary proceedings, a politician as Presiding Officer is far more effective than a scholar. Naidu belongs to the BJP’s old school of the charming Atal Behari Vajpayee, the courteous LK Advani and the impressive Sushma Swaraj who command respect and adoration across party lines. He more than compensates for scholarship with the easy geniality and tactfulness of a battle-hardened politician.