New Delhi: Jagdeep Dhankhar has been elected as the next Vice President of India defeating the Opposition’s pick Margaret Alva. Dhankhar will succeed incumbent M Venkaiah Naidu, whose term will end on August 10, to become the 14th Vice President of India. The polling took place in the Parliament building at 10 am on Saturday and concluded at 5 pm with a poll percentage of 90 per cent till 3 pm.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the first voters to cast his vote. Former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh arrived in a wheelchair to cast his vote for the Vice President election. Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP president J P Nadda, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, and Commerce Minister and Leader of House in Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal were among the leaders who turned up early at the Parliament House.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former party chief Rahul Gandhi also cast their ballot post noon.
NDA’s candidate Dhankhar had a clear edge over his opponent with the ruling BJP having an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha and 91 members in the Rajya Sabha.
Dhankhar, 71 is a lawyer by profession who was one of the leading professionals in the country and has practiced in both, the Rajasthan High Court and the Supreme Court of India. He served as the governor of West Bengal in 2019. He stepped into public life after getting elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) from Jhunjhunu in the 1989 Lok Sabha elections and later was elected MLA to Rajasthan Assembly from Ajmer’s Kishangarh constituency in 1993.
Born in an agrarian household in a remote village in the Jhunjhunu district of Rajasthan, Dhankhar completed his school education at Sainik School in Chittorgarh. After completing his graduation in Physics, he pursued LLB from the University of Rajasthan