Vice President Election 2022: NDA nominee Jagdeep Dhankar files nomination, PM Modi present

New Delhi, July 18: National Democratic Alliance (NDA) vice-presidential candidate and former Governor of Bengal Jagdeep Dhankhar filed his nomination today in the presence of PM Narendra Modi.

The last date for filing the nominations is tomorrow and the election will be held on 6th of August.

Jagdeep Dhankhar, described by the saffron party as a 'kisan putra' (son of farmer), has a lot more to his credit than just being someone always at odds with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The 71-year-old Dhankhar has been a noted lawyer, was instrumental in getting OBC status for Jats in Rajasthan, and loves to beat his own cappuccino desi-style.

He has been a cricketer and also a keen student of spirituality and meditation, according to various official accounts.

His nomination would also mean that the presiding officers of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will be from Rajasthan, among the only two states currently ruled by governments, which incidently goes to polls next year.

Like most Jat leaders from his time, Dhankhar was originally associated with Devi Lal and his political career began to surge when as a young lawyer at that time, he was picked up by Lal as the opposition candidate in 1989 from Jhunjhunu Parliamentary Constituency, then a Congress citadel, and he won.

He 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 focussed on his legal career for over a decade.

In July 2019, he was appointed as the Governor of West Bengal and since then he has been in news on a regular basis, often as for taking on the state chief minister at every given opportunity.