Hummingbird News Desk
NEW DELHI, 6 AUG: Jadgeep Dhankar, former West Bengal Governor and National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) nominee, who was pitted against UPA’s candidate Margaret Alva, became the 14th Vice-President of India on Saturday after winning the 16th election by an overwhelming majority.
The voting for choosing the Vice-President, which began at 10 am, ended at 5 pm. In the election, Dhankar had the advantage of the support of several regional parties like Janata Dal (United), YSRCP, BSP, AIADMK and the Shiv Sena, while Trinamool Congress stayed away from the election.
The counting of votes for the vice-presidential election had begun at 6pm after 92.4 per cent of the members of Parliament cast their ballots.
Lok Sabha general secretariat Utpal K Singh said out of 780 votes, 725 cast their ballot and Dhankhar polled 528 votes, while Alva secured 182. There were 50 absentees and 15 votes were found invalid.
There were eight vacancies in Rajya Sabha – four from Jammu and Kashmir, three nominated and one from Tripura. There are 543 members in Lok Sabha and 237 in Rajya Sabha.
While the TMC did not participate in the election, only two lawmakers from the party. Shishir Adhikari and Debyandu Adhikari voted.
The counting started 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.
Jagdeep Dhankar, who is a lawyer by profession, was a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party prior to becoming the Governor of West Bengal. He served as Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs in the Chandra Shekhar ministry.
Dhankhar was born on 18 May 1951 to Gokal Chand and Kesari Devi in Kithana, a small village in Jhunjhunu in the State of Rajasthan in a Hindu Jat family. He joined politics in 1989.
Tags: #JagdeepDhankar #MargaretAlva #NDA #UPA #VicePresident
