New Delhi, Aug 19: Former Supreme Court judge B Sudershan Reddy is the joint candidate of the Opposition parties for the Vice-Presidential polls, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge announced on Tuesday, as he called the upcoming election for the country’s second-highest office an “ideological battle”.
Reddy is a former judge of the Supreme Court and the first Lokayukta of Goa. He is also on the Board of Trustees of the International Arbitration and Mediation Centre in Hyderabad.
Reddy would arrive in the national capital on Tuesday evening and meet with various Opposition leaders. He will file his nomination on August 21.
The joint opposition would hold a meeting in the central hall of Samvidhan Sadan (old Parliament building) on Wednesday afternoon.
“All Opposition parties have decided to have a common candidate; the decision has been taken unanimously. I am happy that all opposition parties have agreed on one name. It is a big achievement for democracy,” Kharge said.
“Whenever democracy and the Constitution are under attack, Opposition parties unite to fight against it. So we have decided to field a good candidate in this election,” he said.
Reading out a joint statement of the Opposition parties, Kharge, who is the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, said Reddy is one of India’s most “distinguished and progressive jurists”.
“He has had a long and eminent legal career, including as Judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court and Judge of the Supreme Court. He has been a consistent and courageous champion of social, economic and political justice,” he said.
“This Vice-Presidential contest is an ideological battle. The Opposition parties have nominated Shri B. Sudershan Reddy garu as their joint candidate since he reflects fully the values that shaped our country’s freedom movement so profoundly and the values on which our country’s Constitution and democracy have been anchored. All these values are under assault and therefore, our collective and determined resolve to fight this election,” Kharge said, reading out the joint statement.
“He is a pro-poor man, and in many of his judgments… he favoured the poor people and also protected the Constitution and fundamental rights,” the Congress chief flanked by various opposition leaders including NCP-SP leader Sharad Pawa, CPI-M’s M A Baby, TMC’s Derek O’Brien, DMK’s Tiruchi Siva and SP’s Dharmendra Yadav said.
He stressed that the vice presidential contest is “an ideological battle” and that’s why all the opposition parties are contesting unitedly.
Talking about Reddy, the Congress chief said, “He reflects fully the values that saved our country’s freedom movement so profoundly and the values on which our country’s constitution and democracy have been anchored”.
“All these values are under assault, and therefore it is our collective and determined resolve to fight this election,” he said.
O’Brien later said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which had recently left the INDIA bloc, is also supporting Reddy for the Vice-Presidential polls.
The move to pick Reddy as a joint candidate for the Opposition made the vice presidential election a South versus South contest. The opposition also wanted to pick a non-political face as their nominee for the second-highest constitutional post in the country.
The BJP-led NDA has picked Maharashtra Governor C P Radhakrishnan, a seasoned BJP leader from Tamil Nadu with an RSS background, as its vice-presidential candidate.
If the NDA chose Radhakrishnan as its candidate from Tamil Nadu to ensure the DMK would not oppose him, the Opposition has countered with its own strategy by fielding an eminent Telugu face as its candidate, making it difficult for parties in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana — the TDP, the YSRCP, and the BRS — to not back Reddy.
The YSRCP, however, has already declared its support for the NDA nominee.
Born in July 1946, Reddy was appointed as a permanent judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on May 2, 1995 and the chief justice of the Gauhati High Court on December 5, 2005.
He became a Supreme Court judge on January 12, 2007, and retired on July 8, 2011.
He was enrolled as an advocate in Hyderabad with the Bar Council of Andhra Pradesh on December 27, 1971. (PTI)
