Who will be India’s Next Vice President amid BJP’s Kerala Pitch?

Former Chief Justice of India Shines Kerala Pitch in BJP’s Deliberations, as BJP leaders claim that the “best-case scenario is to stick with thrust on building support among the scheduled castes and extremely backward castes.”

By MANISH ANAND

NEW DELHI, August 5, 2025 — The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to unveil name of the nominee of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) for the election of India’s next Vice President. The special electorate will choose India’s next Vice President on September 9 this year.

The BJP has held rounds of consultations at the level of the party’s top brass. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister for Home Affairs Amit Shah are piloting the search for the NDA nominee in the election for Vice President of India, said informed sources.

It has been reliably learnt that political messaging will take priority in picking up the nominee. The BJP is learnt to be more inclined to make a pitch for the electorate in southern parts of the country, while deciding on the Vice President election nominee.

Name of former Chief Justice of India K. G. Balakrishnan has begun doing the rounds of the power corridors as the decision of the NDA becomes imminent. Balakrishnan was India’s one of the longest serving CJI. He afterwards had also become the chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

“Balakrishnan hails from the scheduled case background, which constitutes 18% of the electorate in Kerala. His son is also rising ladders in the state unit of the BJP,” said an informed source. Balakrishnan’s Kerala connect is now in the spotlight in the corridors of power. He had previously also been the Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court. He had briefly also become the Governor of Gujarat.

Balakrishnan, 80, is inviting close scrutiny within the BJP circles, as party leaders claimed that “Kerala remains a tough battleground that needs an ideological assertion.” Union Minister for Home Affairs Amit Shah had recently visited Kerala to raise the political mojo of the BJP ahead of the civic body elections in the state.

Shah had spotlighted the BJP winning 18% votes in the Lok Sabha elections during his address to the party workers in the state. While the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) continues to spread footprints in Kerala, often playing victim card of the alleged political violence, the BJP has made incremental gains in the state politics in the last one decade.

“The BJP’s best-case scenario is to stick with thrust in building support among the scheduled castes and extremely backward castes. This constituency is more amenable to experiment with new political ideology than others,” said a senior BJP functionary.

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About The Author

Manish Anand

Manish Anand is a senior journalist with more than two decades of hardcore reporting on beats such as Prime Minister’s Office, Parliament, BJP, Congress, Planning Commission, NITI Aayog, and scores of Union Ministries.

His past has been with The New Indian Express, The Asian Age/Deccan Chronicle, and The Statesman.

For about 15 years, Manish was also a regular commentator and host for talks on AIR on foreign affairs.

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