Bhubaneswar: Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the main Opposition party in Odisha, is yet to reveal its stand with regard to the Vice Presidential elections, scheduled to be held on September 9.

The Vice Presidential elections are necessitated due to the resignation of incumbent Jagdeep Dhankhar on July 21. Dhankhar resigned from his post citing health issues. He sent his resignation to President Droupadi Murmu.

Subsequently, The Election Commission of India (ECI) issued the official notification for the conduct of the Vice Presidential Election, 2025.

The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has announced Maharashtra Governor CP Radhakrishnan as its candidate for the polls. Radhakrishnan, a native of Tamil Nadu, assumed charge as Governor of Maharashtra on July 31 last year after a stint as Governor of Jharkhand from February 2023 to July 2024.

He had served as the president of BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit from 2004 to 2007. Radhakrishnan had been elected to the Lok Sabha from Coimbatore constituency in Tamil Nadu in 1998 and 1999 Parliamentary elections.

The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc, led by the Congress party, has fielded B. Sudershan Reddy, a former Supreme Court judge, for the Vice Presidential polls.

Reddy, a native of Telangana, is a noted jurist and he had served as a judge in the apex court from 2007 to 2011.

Several political parties, having no link with the two major alliances, have already revealed their stands with regard to the VP elections.

The YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSRCP in Andhra Pradesh has announced its support for the NDA candidate while the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM revealed that it would vote for INDIA bloc candidate in the VP elections.

However, the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD, which has seven MPs in the Rajya Sabha, is yet to make its stand clear.

After chairing a meeting of party’s political affairs committee (PAC) yesterday, Patnaik, a five-time former Chief Minister of Odisha, today left for Delhi on a four-day visit.

In the Vice Presidential polls, the regional party has three options—it may support NDA candidate or the INDIA block candidate or abstain from polls.

The BJD had abstained from the 2012 VP polls, in which Hamid Ansari had been declared as elected. It had supported non-NDA candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi in 2017 Vice Presidential elections. However, Gandhi lost to NDA candidate Venkaiaha Naidu. In 2022 VP polls, BJD had supported NDA candidate Dhankar.

It is worth mentioning here that the members of both houses Parliament, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, cast their votes to elect the Vice President of India.