West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar will be the Vice Presidential candidate from the NDA side. BJP national president JP Nadda made this announcement on Saturday. The name of Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan was also running for a long time in the race for the post of Vice President. However, the name of Jagdeep Dhankhar for the post of Vice President was announced on Saturday. The tenure of current Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu ends on 10 August. At the same time, elections for the post of Vice President are to be held on August 6.
The BJP Parliamentary Board meeting was held in the presence of PM Narendra Modi at the party headquarters in New Delhi on Saturday, after which party president JP Nadda announced the name of Jagdeep Dhankhar. Apart from PM Narendra Modi and JP Nadda, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan were also present in the Parliamentary Board meeting.
Addressing the press conference, JP Nadda said, “Farmer son Jagdeep Dhankhar will be the NDA’s Vice Presidential candidate. He comes from a simple farming family. He crossed the social and economic barriers and achieved high goals in his life and he left no stone unturned to serve the nation. Nadda said that as the Governor of West Bengal, Dhankhar has made a mark as the Governor who rules the hearts of the people.
At the same time, PM Narendra Modi tweeted that Glad that Jagdeep Dhankhar (West Bengal Governor) will be our (NDA) Vice Presidential candidate. He further said, “I am sure that he will be an outstanding Speaker in the Rajya Sabha and will guide the proceedings of the House with the aim of furthering the national progress.”
July 19 is the last date for filing nomination papers: Nomination papers for the election of the Vice-President can be filed till July 19. The scrutiny of nominations will take place on July 20 and the final list will be released on July 22. Whereas, the voting will be held on August 6 between 10 am to 5 pm and the results are expected on the same day.