India’s New Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar

Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar
Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar

Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar: Former West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar is the new Vice President of India. She emerged the winner, defeating the opposition candidate Margaret Alva by 346 votes.

Jat Jagdeep Dhankhar was born in 1951 in a small village Kithana in Rajasthan in a farmer family.

Mr Dhankhar started out as an advocate and practiced in the Supreme Court and the Rajasthan High Court. A year after entering active politics, he was named a senior advocate in 1990.

He was closely associated with former Deputy Prime Minister of India Chaudhary Devi Lal and followed his mentor when the latter walked out of the VP Singh government and became a Union minister in the minority government led by Chandrashekhar in 1990.

He joined the Congress after PV Narasimha Rao became the Prime Minister. But with the rise of Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan, he switched ships to the BJP. Mr Dhankhar was appointed as the Governor of West Bengal in July 2019.

On August 6, 2022, Mr. Dhankhar became the Vice President of India by defeating the opposition candidate Margaret Alva by 346 votes.

Who is Jagdeep Dhankhar?

Dhankhar, a native of Rajasthan, is a former governor of West Bengal and was often in the news for his conflict with the Mamata Banerjee government and his party, the Trinamool Congress.

Born on 18 May 1951 in Kithana village of Jhunjhunu district of the state, he completed his schooling from Sainik School, Chittorgarh.

He pursued Physics at Rajasthan University and also completed LLB from the same university.

After this Dhankhar practiced in the Rajasthan High Court and Supreme Court.

He entered politics in 1989 and was elected to the Lok Sabha in the same year from Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan.

Later, he served as the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs in the Chandrashekhar-led Janata Dal government.

From 1993–1998, Dhankhar represented the Kishangarh constituency of Ajmer district in the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly.

He belongs to the Jat community, and is set to take oath as India’s first OBC vice-president.