On Saturday, National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate and former West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar was elected as India’s 14th Vice President, easily defeating joint opposition candidate Margaret Alva. Margaret Alva received 182 votes, while Jagdeep Dhankhar received 528 votes. Dhankhar’s victory, with 72.8 percent of the vote against his opponent, clearly demonstrates Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party’s continued dominance. The BJP now controls all key positions, from President to Vice President to Lok Sabha Speaker.
TOI reported that Jagdeep Dhankhar’s victory margin of 72.8 percent of the 725 valid votes cast during the V-P polls was the highest in the last six vice-presidential elections since 1997. While KR Narayanan still holds the record for the largest victory margin, securing 700 of the 701 votes cast in 1992, Dhankhar’s performance in the most recent polls outperformed Naidu’s by 2%.
Jagdeep Dhankar, 71, is the first BJP nominee for Vice President who did not start his political career in the Sangh Parivar. In the 2007 Vice-Presidential Election, Congress’ Mohammad Hamid Ansari received 60.51 percent of the 762 valid votes cast. From 2007 to 2017, he was Vice President. Venkaiah Naidu won the 2017 Vice President election with 67.89 percent of the votes of the total 760 valid votes.
Key facts about new Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar
1. Jagdeep Dhankhar is Rajasthan’s second Vice President after Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.
2. Born in an agrarian family in a remote village in Rajasthan, Jagdeep Dhankhar rose to become one of the state’s leading lawyers, practicing in both the Rajasthan High Court and the Supreme Court. He was also the president of the Rajasthan High Court Bar Association.
3. He entered politics in 1989 and was elected to the Lok Sabha from Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan the following year. He was a minister of state for Parliamentary Affairs in Chandra Shekhar’s Janata Dal government.
4. Jagdeep Dhankar was elected Governor of West Bengal in 2019.
5. He has advocated for Other Backward Classes (OBC) issues, such as granting OBC status to the Jat community in Rajasthan.
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