New Delhi: Jagdeep Dhankar was on Saturday elected as the 14th Vice-President of India. He succeeds M Venkaiah Naidu, whose term ends on August 11.
Dhankar, who was the BJP-led NDA’s nominee, was up against Opposition candidate Margaret Alva.
The 71-year-old Dhankar was a BJP member before being appointed Governor of West Bengal in 2019.
Dhankar received 528 votes – more than two-thirds — while Alva got 182 in the vice-presidential election.
The electoral college for vice-presidential election comprises 780 votes — 543 elected Lok Sabha MPs and 237 Rajya Sabha members.
The polling took place today, with 725 members casting their votes. A total of 15 votes were ruled invalid.
The election for India’s new President took place last month, with NDA’s choice Draupadi Murmu beating off the challenge of Yashwant Sinha. Murmu thus became the first President from India’s tribal community.
Following is the list of India’s Vice-Presidents:
* Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1952, 1957)
* Zakir Hussain (1962)
* VV Giri (1967)
* Gopal Swarup Pathak (1969)
* BD Jatti (1974)
* Mohammad Hidayatullah (1979)
* R Venkatraman (1984)
* Shankar Dayal Sharma (1987)
* KR Narayanan (1992)
* Krishan Kant (1997)
* BS Shekhawat (2002)
* Md Hamid Ansari (2007, 2012)
* M Venkaiah Naidu (2017)
* Jagdeep Dhankar (2022)