C. P. Radhakrishnan

Member of parliament (1998-2004)

In the 1998 elections, Radhakrishnan was elected to the Lok Sabha, representing Coimbatore. The election was held in the aftermath of the 1998 Coimbatore bombings.^[8] He defeated the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) candidate by a margin of 144,676 votes. He was one of three BJP candidates to win in Tamil Nadu as a part of the party's alliance with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK).^[9] Representing the BJP, he won the 1999 elections from the same constitutency as a part of the DMK-led alliance.^[10][11] He was part of a parliamentary delegation to the United Nations, and addressed the 58th session of the United Nations General Assembly on 20 October 2003.^[12] He was a member of the parliamentary committee for public sector undertakings from 1998 to 2004 and a member of the parliamentary consultative committee for finance.^[6]

Party chief and later years (2005-2022)

Ahead of the 2004 general elections, he was among the BJP's state leaders who worked on forming an alliance with the AIADMK in 2004 after the DMK exited from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).^[5][13] His tenure in the Parliament of India ended following his defeat in the 2004 general election to K. Subbarayan of the Communist Party of India.^[6][14] He was appointed as the state president of the Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP in 2004 and served in the position till 2006. As the president, he took a rath yatra for 93 days, advocating the linkage of Indian rivers, eradicating untouchability, and campaigning against terrorism in India. He covered all the parliamentary constituencies of Tamil Nadu during his journey, which faced criticism from the ruling DMK. He was also involved in the organising of the Kerala state unit of the BJP during the late 2000s.^[15][16] In 2012, he faced court arrest in Mettupalayam for protesting inaction against culprits who had assaulted an RSS activist.^[17]

Radhakrishnan was announced as the BJP candidate for Coimbatore in the 2014 general elections. He secured second place after polling 389,701 votes, the highest among the BJP candidates in Tamil Nadu. He contested as the party's candidate from the same constituency in the 2019 general election and lost to P. R. Natarajan of the CPIM.^[5][18] He was the chairman of the Coir Board of India, which comes under the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, from 2016 to 2020.^[6][19] He also served as a member of the BJP's national executive.^[6][20]

Governorship (2023–2025)

On 12 February 2023, president Droupadi Murmu appointed Radhakrishnan as the governor of Jharkhand, succeeding Ramesh Bais, and he took office on 18 February 2023.^[21][22] Following the resignation of Tamilisai Soundararajan, he held additional responsibilities as the governor of Telangana and as lieutenant Governor of Puducherry from 19 March 2024.^[23][24][25] On 27 July 2024, he was appointed as governor of Maharashtra.^[26] Jishnu Dev Varma, Santosh Gangwar, and Kuniyil Kailashnathan , took over his positions in Telangana, Jharkhand, and Puducherry, respectively.^{[27][28][29][30]} Radhakrishnan resigned as governor of Maharashtra following his election as the Vice President of India.

Vice Presidential elections

Lok Sabha elections

More information Elections, Lok Sabha ...

Elections	Lok Sabha	Constituency	Political party			Result	Vote percentage	Opposition
								Candidate	Political party			Vote percentage
1998	12th	Coimbatore	BJP			Won	55.85%	K. R. Subbian	DMK			37.86%
1999	13th						49.21%	R. Nallakannu	CPI			43.02%
2004	14th					Lost	38.74%	K. Subbarayan				57.46%
2014	16th						33.12%	P. Nagarajan	AIADMK			36.69%
2019	17th						31.34%	P. R. Natarajan	CPI(M)			45.66%

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