New Delhi: With the numbers heavily stacked in his favour, the NDA’s consensus vice-presidential candidate and former West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar stormed to a facile and expected victory over his challenger, the joint Opposition nominee Margaret Alva on Saturday. After day-long polling, Dhankhar opened up a handsome lead over the former Union minister and held on to it to eventually cruise home.
Born in an agrarian household in a remote village in Jhunjhunu district of Rajasthan, Dhankhar completed his school education from Sainik School in Chittorgarh.
After completing his graduation in Physics, he pursued LLB from the University of Rajasthan.
Despite being a first generation professional, he became one of the leading lawyers in the state. Dhankhar has practiced in both Rajasthan High Court and the Supreme Court of India.
He entered public life after getting elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) from Jhunjhunu in the 1989 Lok Sabha elections.
Subsequently, he also served as a Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs in 1990.
In 1993, Dhankhar was elected to the Rajasthan assembly from the Kishangarh constituency in Ajmer district. Later, in July 2019, he was appointed as the Governor of West Bengal.
Notably, Vice-President of India is the second highest constitutional position in the country. The Vice-President is also the chairperson of the Rajya Sabha.
The VP assumes the duties of the President of India in an emergency situation or when the President is away.
It is to be noted that the Vice President is elected by an electoral college consisting of members of both Houses of Parliament, in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote and the voting in such election is by secret ballot.
The Electoral College to elect a person to the office of the Vice President consists of all members of both Houses of Parliament.