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The opposition INDIA bloc on Thursday, August 19, announced former Supreme Court judge B Sudershan Reddy as the Vice-Presidential candidate for the upcoming elections. He will face the NDA’s nominee, senior BJP leader CP Radhakrishnan, in the polls scheduled for September 9.
Making the announcement, Congress president and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, said that the election was not just a contest for the VP post, but an “ideological battle.”
“Justice Reddy has been a consistent and courageous champion of social, economic, and political justice. He embodies the values of the Freedom Movement and the Constitution. All of these values are under assault today, and this election is part of our collective resolve to defend them,” Kharge said.
The election was necessitated after incumbent Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar resigned on July 21, 2025.
Who is B Sudershan Reddy?
Born on July 8, 1946, in Telangana’s Ibrahimpatnam, Sudershan Reddy graduated in law from Osmania University in 1971 and enrolled as an advocate the same year with the Bar Council of Andhra Pradesh. He specialised in writ and civil matters.
Between 1988 and 1990, he served as Government Pleader in the AP High Court and briefly worked as Additional Standing Counsel for the Union government. He also acted as legal adviser and Standing Counsel for Osmania University.
He was appointed as a judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in 1995 and went on to serve as Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court in 2005. In January 2007, he was elevated to the Supreme Court, where he served until his retirement in July 2011.
Before his retirement, Justice Sudershan delivered a judgement criticising the Union government for lagging in probing black money cases and ordered the setting up of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) under the chairmanship of Justice BP Jeevan Reddy.
Justice Sudershan is well known for declaring Salwa Judum, a counterinsurgency outfit of the Chhattisgarh government, as an illegal front for roping in young tribal men as Special Police Officers. The Salwa Judum was set up by the state of Chhattisgarh to counter anti-Naxalite operations.
The former Judge also disposed of a legal dispute between industrialists Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani regarding the supply and pricing of natural gas from Anil’s Reliance Natural Resources Limited (RNIL) in the Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin gas fields. The three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, which included Justice KG Balakrishnan, Justice Sathasivam and Justice B Sudershan, ultimately sided with Anil Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited and ruled that the government had the right to fix the price and allocation of gas.
In 2022, the Supreme Court appointed him as the oversight authority for the Comprehensive Environmental Plan for mining impact zones (CEPMIZ). Justice Sudershan monitored the restoration of Ballari, Chitradurga, and Tumakuru districts affected by adverse mining.
More recently, Justice Sudershan headed the 11–member Independent Expert Committee Working Group that analysed and interpreted the Socio-Economic, Education, Employment and Political Caste survey conducted by the Telangana government.
Speaking to TNM, anti-caste activist and a member of the expert committee, Dr Kancha Ilaiah, said that Justice Sudershan was a well-known, efficient judge with socialist leanings.
“He was part of the socialist movement led by Jayaprakash Narayan in the 1980s and has always valued the Constitution. He headed the 11-member expert committee on the caste survey, which will be the first-ever report of its kind and likely lay the groundwork for other states to adopt similar policies,” he said.