defeat of the opposition's candidate in the vice-presidential election +

Venkaiah Naidu in the VP's chair +

victory of the ballot and free speech +

NEW DELHI: Congress lost yet another power perch with the, in what marks the party's final exit from the power matrix that consolidated in its favour during the decade of UPA rule.joins Ram Nath Kovind , who was last month elected to the post of President. Both belong to BJP — and their win marks a radical shift from the recent past when these posts saw the election of Congress nominees for two consecutive terms.Though the lead opposition party was reconciled to this result after its decimation in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the implications started sinking in with Saturday's election.Besides the demoralising symbolism of being absent from all the top constitutional positions, the VP's election has implications for what has been the opposition and Congress's last source of political standing — the Rajya Sabha The opposition has been able to corner the government with its commanding majority in the Upper House, somewhat compensating for its absolute irrelevance in the Lok Sabha.The concern in Congress ranks is that with the VP, who is also the chairman of RS, belonging to BJP, the opposition party may not get an "indulgent" treatment from the chair. The new reality may force the opposition camp to revise the strategies they have used for three years to corner the government.It has been a cat and mouse game between the government and the opposition in the Upper House. With the Congress-led bloc blocking legislations at will in the RS with their numerical superiority , the government's manoeuvre to designate its crucial agenda as "money bill" triggered a bitter feud. The opposition called it BJP's ploy to avoid voting on those bills in the RS.Now, there is a view in the opposition and the Congress that a revision of approach may be required after the new change of equation.The opposition's vice-presidential nominee Gopalkrishna Gandhi said on Saturday the results depicted the, a victory "that belonged to the people of India". Gandhi, who secured 244 of the 785 votes cast on Saturday, said he was "more than satisfied" with what he had got. Addressing reporters shortly after the Election Commission declared Venkaiah Naidu the next VP, Gandhi said, "I congratulate Venkaiah Naidu Garu on his victory and wish him all the best... Secondly, I would like to thank all the MPs for having voted for me. I refer to those who have voted for me... They represent different political persuasions, and they had all come together to vote for what they thought was the national good, which is the affirmation of the right to free thought, the right to hold a different opinion, and the duty to serve the cause of pluralism and secularism in India." Even though it was a losing battle for the opposition from the start, Gandhi's candidature, opposition parties felt, had given the contest additional heft and ideological credibility.