• Jagdeep Dhankhar, former Governor of Bengal, was inaugurated in as India's Vice President

    Politics
    Jagdeep Dhankhar, former Governor of Bengal, was inaugurated in as India's Vice President

    On August 6, Dhankhar received the most votes of any candidate in any of the six vice presidential elections that have been held since 1997, garnering 74.36 percent of the total vote. He triumphed by defeating Margaret Alva of the opposition.

    Digital Desk: On Thursday,
    Jagdeep Dhankhar, a former West Bengal governor and NDA candidate, was sworn in
    as India's fourteenth vice president. At Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi, freshly
    elected president Droupadi Murmu administered Dhankar's oath.



    Prime Minister Narendra Modi,
    previous President Ram Nath Kovind, former Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, Lok
    Sabha Speaker Om Birla, and countless other luminaries were present for the
    swearing-in of the new vice president.



    Dhankhar honoured "Pujya
    Bapu" Mahatma Gandhi at Delhi's Raj Ghat before taking the oath of office.



    While paying respect to Pujya
    Bapu at the serene sublimity of Raj Ghat, Dhankhar wrote, "I felt blessed,
    inspired, and determined to be ever in service of Bharat.



    On August 6, Dhankhar received
    the most votes of any candidate in any of the six vice presidential elections
    that have been held since 1997, garnering 74.36 percent of the total vote. He
    triumphed by defeating Margaret Alva of the opposition.



    Dhankhar will also serve as the
    ex-officio chairman of the Rajya Sabha.



    Dhankhar is from an agrarian
    family in a village in Rajasthan's Jhunjhunu district and attended Sainik
    School in Chittorgarh for his education. After receiving his physics degree, he
    continued his studies at the University of Rajasthan to obtain his LLB. He was
    a first-generation professional who rose to become one of the state's top
    attorneys.



    Dhankhar, 71, has experience
    representing clients before both the Rajasthan High Court and the Supreme Court
    of India. He entered public life after being elected as Jhunjhunu's Member of
    Parliament in the 1989 Lok Sabha elections on the Janata Dal platform. He also
    served as Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs in 1990. The former
    deputy prime minister Devi Lal initially influenced his political beliefs.



    In 2019, Dhankhar, who has a
    history of disputes with the Mamata Banerjee government, was appointed governor
    of Bengal. He announced his retirement as governor of West Bengal on July 17, a
    day after running as the vice presidential candidate for the National
    Democratic Alliance (NDA).



    With Dhankhar's election as
    Vice-President, the presiding officers of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will
    be from Rajasthan.