Fadnavis calls Uddhav, Sharad Pawar seeking support for NDA’s Vice-President candidate

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis called Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray or UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, and Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar (NCP-SP) president Sharad Pawar to seek their support for C.P. Radhakrishnan, Vice-Presidential candidate of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

But both Mr. Pawar and Mr. Thackeray are learnt to have told Mr. Fadnavis that they would be unable to extend their support to Mr. Radhakrishnan.

“The CM called both the leaders on Wednesday (August 20, 2025) night to request them for their support to C.P. Radhakrishnan-ji. He is a voter of Maharashtra, so they should vote for him as Maharashtra’s candidate,” an official from the Chief Minister’s Office told The Hindu.

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut shot this down, saying Mr. Radhakrishnan had not been given the candidature for being a representative of Maharashtra. “The CM has been calling all the party leaders. He has not called only the Shiv Sena (UBT). Our stand is clear. We are INDIA bloc,” Mr. Raut told The Hindu.

Mr. Pawar had a similar response. “The Chief Minister called me on Wednesday night to seek the party’s support in the upcoming election for Vice-President. But I told him that NCP-SP is a part of the INDIA alliance and that we have pledged our votes to the INDIA bloc candidate,” he told The Hindu.

The Vice-Presidential election will be held on September 9, after the abrupt resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar led to a vacancy. While the NDA has fielded Mr. Radhakrishnan, currently the Governor of Maharashtra, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has fielded B. Sudershan Reddy, a former judge of the Supreme Court. 

Mr. Radhakrishnan is a career politician with deep ties to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He was a two-term MP from Coimbatore, the former BJP president of Tamil Nadu, and the Governor of Jharkhand. While the BJP sought to hold the election unopposed, the UPA fielded a candidate despite the lack of sufficient numbers in its kitty.

Mr. Reddy, nominated by the INDIA bloc, is a renowned jurist. He was a judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, the Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court, and a Supreme Court judge.