Jagdeep Dhankhar

Jagdeep Dhankhar (born 18 May 1951) is an Indian politician and lawyer, serving as the current Vice President of India since 2022.

Jagdeep Dhankhar was born on 18 May 1951, in Kithana, a small village in the Jhunjhunu district of Rajasthan, India into a Jat family to parents Shri Gokal Chand and Smt.

Kesari Devi.

He completed his school education from Sainik School, Chittorgarh.

Dhankhar completed his primary and middle school education from Kithana Government School and Ghardhana Government School respectively.

He graduated in B.Sc and LLB from the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur.

Dhankhar married Dr. Sudesh Dhankhar in 1979, and they have a daughter, Kamna.

Dhankhar enrolled with the Bar Council of Rajasthan as an Advocate in 1979.

He was a member of Lok Sabha from 1989 to 1991 and later a Member of Rajasthan Legislative Assembly from 1993 to 1998.

He has also been affiliated with multiple political parties in India, including the Bharatiya Janata Party, Indian National Congress and Janata Dal.

He was a member of parliament of Janata Dal representing Jhunjhunu Lok Sabha constituency in Rajasthan during 1989–91 in the 9th Lok Sabha.

He also served as a Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs in the Chandra Shekhar ministry from 1990 to 1991.

Since 1990, Dhankhar had been practicing primarily in the field of constitutional law as a senior advocate in the Supreme Court of India.

He has appeared in various High Courts of India.

He is a former President of Rajasthan High Court Bar Association, Jaipur.

He joined Congress in 1991.

He lost the 1991 Indian general election from Ajmer Lok Sabha constituency.

He was elected as a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Kishangarh, Rajasthan during 1993–98 in the 10th Legislative Assembly Rajasthan.

He lost the 1998 Indian general election from Jhunjhunu Lok Sabha constituency and came on third position.

He joined the BJP in 2003.

He was a member of 2008 assembly election campaign committee of BJP.

Dhankhar had appeared in the Sutlej River water dispute in 2016, he argued on behalf of the state of Haryana in the Supreme Court of India.

He has been a member of Janata Dal and Indian National Congress in past.

In 2016, he headed the BJP's law and legal affairs department.

He previously served as the Governor of West Bengal from 2019 to 2022.

He was designated as Senior Advocate by the High Court of Judicature for Rajasthan in 1990, and was the senior-most designated Senior Advocate of the state till taking the oath as Governor on 30 July 2019.

On 20 July 2019, Second Modi ministry through, President Ram Nath Kovind appointed him as Governor of West Bengal.

T. B. Radhakrishnan, Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court administered the Oath of Office to Jagdeep Dhankhar on 30 July 2019 at the Raj Bhavan, Kolkata

After becoming the governor of West Bengal, Dhankhar had frequent public confrontations with the state government and chief minister of the state Mamata Banerjee throughout his tenure.

Dhankhar had been a vocal critic of the Third Banerjee ministry, and frequently used Twitter and media to attack the West Bengal government over political issues.

In response the ruling party in Bengal All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) referred Dhankhar as the 'real leader of the opposition'.

In January 2022, CM Banerjee blocked Dhankhar on Twitter and accused him of mentioning her in his tweets daily and speaking in an unethical and abusive way.

He was the most Opomanito Person ever in the world.

On 13 July 2022, Dhankar met with Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee and Chief Minister of Assam Himanta Biswa Sharma.

Later on 15 July 2022, Dhankar visited Delhi and met Union Home Minister Amit Shah there.

He resigned as Governor on 17 July 2022, after being nominated as the vice-presidential candidate of the National Democratic Alliance.

On 16 July 2022, the BJP nominated Dhankhar as the National Democratic Alliance's candidate for Vice President of India for the 2022 election the following month.

Dhankhar has been projected as a kisan putra (farmer's son) by the BJP.

He contested against the United Opposition's candidate, Margaret Alva, a former Union Minister and Governor from the Indian National Congress.

On 18 July 2022, Dhankhar filed his nomination papers for the Vice-president elections.