New Delhi, Aug. 20 -- Former Supreme Court judge B Sudershan Reddy, 79, will be the INDIA bloc's candidate for the Vice-Presidential election, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge announced on Tuesday. Reddy, who was born on July 8, 1946, was enrolled as an advocate at Hyderabad with the Bar Council of Andhra Pradesh on December 27, 1971. He practiced in writ and civil matters at the Andhra Pradesh high court. He was a government pleader in the high court from 1988-90. He served as an additional standing counsel for the Central government in 1990 and legal adviser and standing counsel for Osmania University. Justice (retd) Reddy was appointed as a permanent judge of the Andhra Pradesh high court in May 1995 and the Chief Justice of the Gauhati high court in December 2005. Appointed as a Supreme Court judge in 2007, he retired in July 2011. The announcement of his candidature came two days after CP Radhakrishnan, the governor of Maharashtra, was named the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate for the Vice Presidential poll scheduled for September 9. The decision was taken at a meeting of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s highest decision-making body, the Parliamentary Board. BJP president JP Nadda said the decision to nominate 68-year-old Radhakrishnan, who was earlier the governor of Jharkhand (2023 to 2024) and had additional charge of Telangana and served as the lieutenant governor of Puducherry, was taken after "extensive discussions with the NDA partners". Nadda said senior leaders of the BJP had also reached out to the opposition parties to support the NDA's nominee. "The opposition leaders conveyed to us that their decision to support the nominee will depend on the candidate.we are hopeful that the VP will be elected by consensus," Nadda said. Reddy delivered the landmark 2011 judgment outlawing the Salwa Judum militia in Chhattisgarh. A bench of justices Reddy and SS Nijjar disbanded Salwa Judum, calling arming civilians "unethical and dangerous" and violative of the Constitution's Article 14 (right to equality) and Article 21 (right to life). The Salwa Judum, which was accused of human rights abuses, was a state-sponsored militia raised in 2005 to counter Maoist insurgency. It comprised largely tribal youth armed with basic training and firearms. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who announced Justice (retd) Reddy's candidature, said opposition parties decided to have a common candidate, and the decision has been taken unanimously. He called the candidature a big achievement for democracy. Justice (retd) Reddy has authored the book "Preamble of the Constitution". He has highlighted the response of Bhimrao Ambedkar, who chaired the committee that drafted the Constitution, to right-wing groups, which criticised it for borrowing ideas. Justice (retd) Reddy has questioned critics belittling the contribution of the first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, asking whether they even understand his depth of knowledge evident in his seminal work "The Discovery of India", exploring the Upanishads, the Himalayas, the Ganga, the Aryans, and Mohenjo Daro. He challenged those who pretend to be learned while unfairly blaming Nehru. Justice (retd) Reddy, who was due to file his nomination on August 21, was born into an agricultural family on July 8, 1946, in Telangana's Ranga Reddy. He graduated in law from Osmania University in Hyderabad in 1971 and started practising in the Hyderabad civil courts. Justice (retd) Reddy was named the government pleader in August 1988 in the Andhra Pradesh high court and argued the revenue department cases. He continued in the post until January 1990. He was appointed as an additional standing counsel for the central government and elected as Andhra Pradesh High Court Advocates' Association president in 1993. Elevated as an additional high court judge in May 1995, he was appointed as the Gauhati high court Chief Justice in December 2005. He was elevated as a Supreme Court judge in January 2007 and retired in July 2011. Justice (retd) Reddy was appointed Goa's first Lokayukta in March 2013. He resigned from the post on personal grounds in October 2013. A supporter of the separate Telangana state, Justice (retd) Reddy also supported the bifurcation of the combined Andhra Pradesh high court....