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Vice Presidential candidates: NDA picks Jagdeep Dhankar, while opposition fields Margaret Alva

Both the candidates have held the office of the governor in the past.

After announcing the candidates for the presidential elections, both NDA and the opposition have now announced the equally sought-after candidates for the Vice-Presidential elections. As is known, the NDA earned a brownie point amongst the masses for announcing a female candidate but now the opposition has matched the play by fielding another female for the office of Vice-President.

NDA announced 71-year-old Jagdeep Dhankar, Governor of West Bengal as their VP candidate. A native of Rajasthan, Dhankar is a Sainik School alumnus and a graduate of the University of Rajasthan. He is an advocate by profession having practiced both in the Supreme as well as High Court. He had been a prominent BJP leader for many years during which he held many important positions. The most important and also controversial appointment came in 2019 when he was selected as the Governor of West Bengal. On one hand, Bengal’s state government and TMC’s leaders have often touted him as a ‘BJP ka agent’ but on the other BJP’s national president J P Nadda considers him a ‘Kisan Putra who established himself as people’s governor.’

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On the other side, the opposition has shown faith in 80-year-old Margaret Alva who is a Congress veteran. Just like her competitor, Alva was also an advocate by education before diving completely into politics. The similarities are not limited to law but go way ahead as Alva finds herself very senior to Dhankar when it comes to managing the responsibilities of a governor having held the post in not just one but four different states namely Uttarakhand and Rajasthan as well as Gujarat and Goa for a brief amount of time.

As for the record, the name for BJP-led NDA’s candidate Dhankar was announced by the party’s president JP Nadda and similarly, the name for the Opposition’s candidate was announced by NCP president Sharad Pawar who told 17 parties had made this decision unanimously.

Although the first of the two episodes will be the Presidential election, it will be interesting to watch out for the second episode on 6th August when the elections for VP will take place as we just might be on the brink of witnessing two ladies at the helm of affairs in the history of Indian democracy for the very first time or will the mandate decide otherwise, only time has the answer.

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