ANOTHER ‘SON OF THE SOIL’ ENTERS NATIONAL OFFICE!

When in the stark summer month of May 1951, a child was born in the house of a farmer —Gokulram Dhankhar — from Kithana village in Jhunjhunu district, little did anyone would have realised that the new born would one day go on to helm one of the highest offices of the land. The child - Jagdeep Dhankhar - went on to become a lawyer, and a prolific one at that, since he soon climbed up the hierarchical ladder and established himself as the ‘lawyer supreme’, ultimately practicing in the highest court of law in the land, the Supreme Court.

Keeping intact his culture and roots, Jagdeep Dhankhar, carved a niche for himself in the political world where he became active in 1989 and through years of went on to become a minister in the Union Government and more recently the Governor of West Bengal, before contesting the election to the office of Vice President of India, which he won comfortably as NDA candidate securing 528 votes, beating Opposition’s candidate Margaret Alva by the largest margin of past six VP elections as Alva could muster only 182 votes. Thus, Dhankhar has now become the 14th Vice President-elect of the Union of India and will take oath of office on August 11.

‘Son of the Soil’ Dhankhar is the second senior leader from Rajasthan to reach the post of Vice President as before him, BJP’s ‘strongman’ Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, affectionately addressed to as ‘Babosa’, has served as Vice President. Interestingly, it if for the first time in the political history of the nation and more specifically Rajasthan that two leaders from the state — Viz Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Vice President Dhankhar — hailing from Rajasthan, are holding two important constitutional offices of the nation!

Known for his legal acumen, Dhankhar has deep roots with the RSS as well for whom he appeared in several cases. Surprisingly, Dhankhar happens to be choice of both Narendra Modi and Amit Shah and his West Bengal tenure provided an opportunity to him to show his talent and political acumen in front of PM Modi and Home Minister Shah.