'Kisan Vikas Purush': Who is Jagdeep Dhankar, NDA’s Vice Presidential nominee?

Kolkata, July 16: West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar is the ruling NDA's candidate for the post of Vice President of India. The BJP made the formal announcement at a press conference on Saturday.

"NDA's candidate for the post of Vice President of India will be Jagdeep Dhankhar. Kisan Putra Jagdeep Dhankhar has been in public life for more than three decades. Jagdeep Dhankhar's life story reflects the spirit of new India - overcoming innumerable social and economic hurdles and achieving one's goals," said BJP chief JP Nadda.

Who is Jagdeep Dhankar?
Born in an agrarian household in a remote village in Rajasthan's Jhunjhunu district, Dhankar who has in the past claimed to be a 'reluctant politician' graduated with honours 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 is married to Sudesh Dhankhar and they have a daughter.

A lawyer by profession, Jagdeep Dhankhar forayed into politics in 1989. Like most Jat leaders from his time, Dhankhar was originally associated with Devi Lal and his political career began to surge after he was made the opposition candidate in 1989 from Jhunjhunu Parliamentary Constituency, then a Congress citadel, and he won.

He followed his mentor Devi Lal when the latter walked out of the VP Singh government and became a union minister in 1990 in the minority government led by Chandrashekhar.

He joined the Congress when P V Narsimha Rao became the Prime Minister and Devi Lal was no more that effective. But with the rise of Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan politics, he shifted to the BJP and is said to have become close to Vasundhara Raje soon after. But, a big gap was to follow soon in his political career and he got more focused on his legal career for over a decade.

He was also a member of the Rajasthan Vidhan Sabha from 1993 to 1998 representing Kishangarh constituency.

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.

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 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 levelling 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.

He is also known as an avid reader and a sports aficionado and has been the President of the Rajasthan Olympic Association, and Rajasthan Tennis Association. He was involved with the grant of OBC status to Other Backward Classes, including Jat community in Rajasthan.