Former West Bengal Governor and National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate Jagdeep Dhankhar was elected as India’s 14th Vice-President on Saturday.
Dhankhar will take oath of office on August 11–a day after the term of the incumbent M Venkaiah Naidu ends.
He will be appointed the ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.
Dhankhar received 528 votes defeating the opposition’s candidate, Margaret Alva, who got 182 votes, Lok Sabha secretary Utpal Kumar Singh said.
Opposition candidate Margaret Alva is a Congress veteran and has served as governor of Rajasthan and Uttarakhand.
Jagdeep Dhankhar born 18 May 1951 is an Indian politician, who is the vice president-elect of India.
He served as the Governor of West Bengal.He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
He also served as the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs in the Chandra Shekhar ministry.
Dhankhar completed his school education Sainik School, Chittorgarh and then graduated in B.Sc and LLB from the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur.
He was a member of parliament from Jhunjhunu (Lok Sabha constituency) in Rajasthan during 1989–91 in the 9th Lok Sabha, representing Janata Dal.
He was also a former Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Kishangarh, Rajasthan during 1993–98 in the 10th Legislative Assembly Rajasthan.
Since 1990, Dhankhar had been practicing primarily 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.[13]
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.
Counting of votes for the vice-presidential election began Saturday evening after around 93 per cent of the members of Parliament cast their ballots.
The counting started at 6 pm under the supervision of the Lok Sabha Secretary General, who is the returning officer for the poll.
As many as 725 MPs voted in the election, polling for which started at 10 pm and ended at 5 pm.
The Vice President of India 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.
The Vice-President is not a member of either House of Parliament or of a House of a Legislature of any state.
If a member of either House of Parliament or of a House of a Legislature of any state is elected as Vice-President, he is deemed to have vacated his seat in that House on the date he/she enters his/her office as Vice-President.
