Bengal Guv Jagdeep Dhankhar NDA’s vice-presidential candidate
Dhankhar’s election as vice-president is almost a certainty as the BJP has a majority in the electoral college
NEW DELHI: The BJP on Saturday named West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, a Jat leader from Rajasthan with socialist background, as the ruling National Democratic Alliance’s vice-presidential candidate.
Making the announcement, BJP president J P Nadda lauded Dhankhar as a “kisanputra” (son of farmer) who, he said, established himself as a “people’s governor”.
Dhankhar’s election as vice-president is almost a certainty as the BJP has a majority in the electoral college comprising members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Out of Parliament’s current strength of 780, the BJP alone has 394 MPs, more than the majority mark of 390.
The BJP parliamentary board in a meeting, attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior leaders, picked the 71-year-old Dhankhar after deliberating over several names, Nadda said.
Dhankhar has been in the limelight since becoming governor of West Bengal in July, 2019 over frequent runins with the Mamata Banerjee government.
The TMC leadership has often accused him of acting as an ‘agent of the BJP’, while the saffron party in the state looked upon him as an upholder of constitutional norms’.
On his part, Dhankhar has claimed he has gone by the rule book and the Constitution in pointing out issues to the Mamata Banerjee government and the state legislature.
Acrimony between Dhankhar and TMC and its leader often led to messy situations with both levelling accusations at each other. The issues which had Raj Bhavan and Nabanna sniping at each other ranged from delays in assent to bills passed in the House to interference in the functioning of the civilian bureaucracy and state-run universities.
After the announcement, Modi tweeted, “Jagdeep Dhankhar Ji has excellent knowledge of our Constitution.
He is also well-versed with legislative affairs. I am sure that he will be an outstanding Chair in the Rajya Sabha & guide the proceedings of the House with the aim of furthering national progress.”
Soon after his name was announced, Dhankhar tweeted, “Thank you Narendra Modi ji for nominating me as the Vice-President candidate for the vice-presidential election.”
Being a Jat, a backward community in Rajasthan, his elevation as vice-president is likely to send helpful political message for the BJP as not many Jats besides former prime minister Charan Singh and former deputy prime minister Devi Lal have occupied high positions at the national level.
The BJP has had uneasy relations with Jats, a powerful agrarian community in Haryana, Rajsthan and western Uttar Pradesh, though the party has received their support in good numbers in the recent two Lok Sabha polls compared to assembly elections in these states.
BJP leaders noted that Dhankhar has been in public life for more than three decades, and his life story reflects the spirit of new India: “overcoming innumerable social and economic hurdles and achieving one’s goals”.
A lawyer by profession, Jagdeep Dhankhar forayed into politics in 1989 and was elected to the Lok Sabha from Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan that same year and became a Union Minister in 1990.
Dhankhar, who practised in Rajasthan High Court and the Supreme Court, was designated a senior advocate in 1990.
Like most Jat politicians from his time, Dhankhar was originally associated with Devi Lal and he followed his mentor when the latter walked out of the VP Singh government and became a union minister in 1990 in the minority government led by Chandrashekhar.
He joined the Congress when P V Narsimha Rao became the prime minister and Devi Lal was no more that effective. But with the rise of Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan politics, he shifted to the BJP and is said to have become close to Vasundhara Raje soon after.
He was also a member of the Rajasthan Vidhan Sabha from 1993 to 1998 representing Kishangarh constituency.
Along with other leaders, he was involved with the grant of OBC status to Other Backward Classes, including Jat community in Rajasthan.
The last date for filing of nomination papers for the poll is July 19 and the election is scheduled for August 6. Dhankar has been a keen cricketer enthusiast and is follower of spirituality and meditation, those familiar with him said. He was also involved with the grant of OBC status for Jats in Rajasthan.