How Jagdeep Dhankhar Got To Being BJP’s Pick For Vice President

Jagdeep Dhankhar, the governor of West Bengal, and now the Bharatiya Janata Party’s candidate for Vice President of India was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1989 on a Janata Dal ticket from Jhunhjunu in Rajasthan, and served as Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs between 1990 and 1991 in the short-lived government led by Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar.

Dhankhar was also elected to the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly as a Congress candidate from Kishangarh in 1993, in an election that saw the BJP led by Bhairon Singh Shekhawat return to power after a period of President's Rule in the state. If elected, Dhankhar will follow in Shekhawat's footsteps to take up the office of Vice President after participating in electoral politics in Rajasthan. The Vice President of India serves as the Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India's Parliament. With Kota MP Om Birla serving as Speaker of the Lok Sabha, having Dhankhar as Rajya Sabha Chairman would mean the presiding officers of both Houses hail from Rajasthan.

State elections will be held in Rajasthan in about 16 months, where BJP will look to wrest power back from the Congress led by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. The West Bengal Raj Bhavan says Dhankhar was “involved with the grant of OBC status to the Jat community in Rajasthan.” Jats were seen as one of the key drivers of protests in Haryana, Punjab and Western Uttar Pradesh over 2020 and 2021, against the Modi government's farm laws, that were subsequently repealed. Describing Dhankhar's years in public life, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the West Bengal governor “Kisan Putra”.

After joining BJP, Dhankhar was appointed the national convener of the party’s Law and Legal Affairs Department. The lawyer-turned-politician has been a member of the International Court of Arbitration. Practicing in the Supreme Court of India for nearly three decades, his areas of expertise were litigation in the areas of steel, coal, and mines.

In his three years as governor in Kolkata, Dhankhar has often been critical of the functioning of the West Bengal state government led by Mamata Banerjee. However, just this week, the two met in Darjeeling, along with Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, in what appeared to be a cordial exchange.

Following the announcement, Prime Minister Modi said in a tweet that Dhankhar had “excellent knowledge of our Constitution,” and added that he “is also well-versed with legislative affairs.” While the BJP is the single-largest party in the Upper House by a distance, it does not command a majority of its own, and has passed key legislation in the Rajya Sabha with the cooperation of other parties.

The last day of nominations for the vice president's post is July 19, and if a competing candidate is nominated as well, voting will be held among the elected and nominated members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on Aug. 6. Incumbent Vice President Venkaiah Naidu's term ends on Aug. 10, 2022.