Tharoor lauds Sudarshan Reddy after V-P poll loss, says fight is for ideals

Soon after Opposition candidate B Sudarshan Reddy's defeat in the vice presidential polls, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday hailed the former Supreme Court judge and said that sometimes the fight is not about winning or losing but about standing up for one's convictions.

His remarks came after NDA candidate C P Radhakrishnan was elected the next vice president of India, bagging 452 votes against the opposition candidate B Sudershan Reddy's 300.

"Sometimes the fight is not about winning or losing but about standing up for your convictions. Pranaams Sudershan Reddy ji," Tharoor said on X.

After the results were announced, the Congress said, "The BJP's 'arithmetical' victory in the vice presidential election is both a 'moral and political defeat' for the ruling party. The Congress also asserted that the Opposition stood united in the election with "most respectable" performance."  Announcing the result of the vice presidential election this evening, Rajya Sabha Secretary General and Returning Officer P C Mody said 767 MPs cast their votes out of the total valid electors of 781 in a turnout of 98.2 per cent.

He said 752 ballots were valid and 15 were invalid, bringing down the required majority of first preference votes to 377.