The National Democratic Alliance has chosen West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar to be its candidate for the upcoming election for the post of Vice President of India.
The decision was announced by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief JP Nadda in New Delhi on Saturday.
Earlier on Friday, the West Bengal Governor had a meeting with BJP senior leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah at his residence in New Delhi.
Dhankar had also met the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in Darjeeling on July 14.
Later, while speaking o reporters, Mamata dismissed any political discussions and described it as a “courtesy meeting”.
“We did not have any political discussion, including any deliberation on the presidential election. It was merely a courtesy meeting over tea,” she told reporters after the 40-minute meeting.
Who is Jagdeep Dhankar?
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. He subsequently became a Union Minister in 1990.
Dhankar, who practiced in Rajasthan High Court and the Supreme Court, was designated a senior advocate in 1990.
The West Bengal governor has in the past claimed to be a `reluctant politician’. He graduated with honors in physics from Maharaja’s College in Jaipur and an LLB degree from Jaipur University in 1978-79.
Before that, he had schooled at Sainik School, Chittorgarh, on a full merit scholarship after his primary education from the government school at village Kithana in Jhunjhunu, where he was born in 1951.
He was also a member of the Rajasthan Vidhan Sabha from 1993 to 1998 representing Kishangarh constituency.
Stormy relationship with West Bengal government
The lawyer-turned politician was appointed governor of West Bengal in July 2019 and has since had a tumultuous relationship with the ruling Trinamool Congress in the state. He has often been at loggerheads with TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee.
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, Dhankar has claimed that 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 the ruling party and its leader often led to messy situations with both leveling accusations at each other over issues ranging from post-poll violence in the state to delays in assent to bills passed in the House besides interference in the functioning of the civilian bureaucracy and state-run universities.
(With inputs from PTI)
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