Jagdeep Dhankhar, the former governor of West Bengal and NDA candidate, was sworn in as India’s 14th vice president on Thursday. Droupadi Murmu, the nation’s newly elected president, delivered Dhankar’s oath at Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi.
Dhankhar took the oath in Hindi in the name of god.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Dhankhar’s predecessor M Venkaiah Naidu were among the dignitaries present at the ceremony.
Dhankhar visited Raj Ghat in Delhi before taking the oath of office to pay homage to “Pujya Bapu” Mahatma Gandhi.
“Felt blessed, inspired and motivated to be ever in service of Bharat in serene sublimity of Raj Ghat while paying respects to Pujya Bapu,” he tweeted sharing pictures from his visit.
The opposition candidate for the Congress, Margaret Alva, lost the election on August 6 to him by a margin of 74.36 percent, the largest in the past six vice president elections since 1997.
Many non-NDA parties, including Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party and Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal from Odisha, as well as Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSR Congress from Andhra Pradesh, supported Dhankhar.
Dhankhar will serve as the ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha as well.
Dhankhar received his schooling at Sainik School in Chittorgarh and comes from an agricultural family in a hamlet in Rajasthan’s Jhunjhunu region. He continued his education at the University of Rajasthan for his LLB after earning his physics degree. He was a first-generation professional who rose to become one of the state’s top attorneys.
Dhankhar was named Governor of Bengal in 2019 and was well-known for his many clashes with the Mamata Banerjee led TMC administration.
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