Vice-president-elect M Venkaiah Naidu took oath as the 13th Vice-president on Friday morning. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate defeated the opposition candidate, Gopalkrishna Gandhi with a huge majority. Naidu won the vice-presidential election last week.
While the 68-year-old BJP leader from Andhra Pradesh got 516 votes out of the total 771 votes cast, Gandhi could manage only 244 votes. It was the highest vote share in 30 years.
Before the formal function, Naidu, 68, paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at Raj Ghat in the capital. He then paid tributes to Jan Sangh leader, Deendayal Upadhyaya, Sardar Vallabhai Patel and BR Ambedkar.
Naidu quit as a senior cabinet minister in the NDA government and the ruling BJP after being named vice-presidential candidate.
Outgoing vice-president Hamid Ansari, on Thursday, said there is a feeling of unease and a sense of insecurity among Muslims in the country and the atmosphere of acceptance is under threat. Naidu, seemed to take on Ansari’s comments saying such comments are ”political propaganda”.
