Former Governor of West Bengal and NDA’s pick Jagdeep Dhankhar on Saturday defeated Opposition nominee Margaret Alva to become the 14th Vice-President of India. Of the 725 votes polled, Dhankhar clinched 528 votes, Alva got 182 while 15 were found to be invalid. As the term of incumbent M Venkaiah Naidu ends on August 10, members of both Houses of Parliament throughout the day voted to elect the next Vice-President who will take oath of office on August 11.
With support from regional parties like the Janata Dal (United), YSRCP, BSP, AIADMK and Shiv Sena, Dhankhar from the very start was up for an easy win. Even as Alva got the backing of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), she failed to garner the support of Trinamool Congress (TMC), the second largest Opposition party after the Congress in Parliament with 39 MPs in both the Houses. The TMC had decided to abstain from voting alleging lack of consultation with them on Alva’s candidature.
While the 71-year-old Dhankhar is a Jat leader from Rajasthan with a socialist background, 80-year-old Alva is a Congress veteran and has served as governor of Rajasthan and Uttarakhand.
President Droupadi Murmu congratulates Jagdeep Dhankhar on his win. “Congratulations to Jagdeep Dhankhar on being elected the Vice President of India. The nation will benefit from your long and rich experience of public life. My best wishes for a productive and successful tenure,” she wrote on Twitter.
“Congratulations to Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar on winning the Vice Presidential elections. His long public life, wide experience and deep understanding of people’s issues will certainly benefit the nation. I am confident that he will make an exceptional VP & Rajya Sabha Chairman,” Union Minister Rajnath Singh wrote on Twitter. Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Jagdeep Dhankhar to congratulate him on his election to the post of Vice President of the country.
Moments after Jagdeep Dhankhar was declared winner in the Vice-Presidential polls, Union Home Minister Amit Shah congratulated him on his new innings. “I am sure that as Vice President and Chairman of Rajya Sabha @jdhankhar1 ji will prove to be an ideal guardian of the Constitution. I congratulate him on this victory. Also, under the leadership of Modi ji, I express my gratitude to the NDA allies, other parties and members of parliament for supporting Dhankhar ji,” Shah wrote on Twitter.
