Dhankhar stands set to be India’s next VP

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA)’s vicepresidential candidate, West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, is both a surprise and a challenge to the Opposition. Mr Dhankhar – who had a tough three years marked by repeated run-ins with the government and bitterness with Mamata Banerjee – hails from the politically influential Jat community that is likely to shape elections in Rajasthan next year and Haryana in 2024. He is from an agrarian family and his candidature is a signal from a party that battled farmers’ ire before withdrawing three controversial laws last year.

In nominating former Jharkhand governor Droupadi Murmu as its presidential candidate, the NDA had made a symbolic point about elevating an Adivasi woman to the highest office. The NDA has now shifted gears from the symbolic to the political, choosing a man who served as a Union minister and used his stint at the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata to check the excesses (or the exercise of legitimate power, depending on the political ideology one subscribes to) of the ruling party. To take on Mr Dhankhar, the Opposition has picked former Union minister and Rajasthan governor, Margaret Alva, as its candidate.

For Mr Dhankhar, who is almost certain to win the August 6 election, the challenges are steep. He will have to steer a deeply divided Upper House in an atmosphere of acrimony and eroding trust between the treasury and Opposition benches, and if his cordial relations with leaders of some parties is a plus when it comes to this, his poor relation with the Trinamool Congress is a minus. With the Rajya Sabha becoming a political battleground instead of a forum for deliberation, he will have his work cut out.