New Delhi: Kisan putra (farmer’s son), a first-generation lawyer and a people’s governor is what BJP chief J. P. Nadda described West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar while announcing his name as the NDA’s vice-president candidate.
In 2019, Dhankhar was made the West Bengal governor primarily because of his legal expertise in an opposition ruled state. Three years on, the septuagenarian, if elected on 6 August, will find his understanding of law handy while trying to maintain the balance in the Rajya Sabha where the gap between the treasury and opposition benches is not as prominent in the Lok Sabha.
Dhankhar’s appointment is also significant from the political perspective as the BJP reaches out to placate the Jats, who are miffed with the Modi government from the days of farm agitation. The community wields considerable influence in Rajasthan, where election is due next year, and Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. Once Dhankhar is elected, Rajasthan will have the distinction of sending presiding leaders to both Houses of Parliament — Lok Sabha Speake Om Birla is MP from Kota.
Sources in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said that by fielding a Jat candidate, the party would be able to break unity in the opposition ranks as seen in the case of presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu.
Born in an agrarian household in a remote village in Rajasthan’s Jhunjhunu district, Dhankhar completed his school education from Sainik School, Chittorgarh. After completing graduation in Physics from Jaipur’s Maharaja College, he did LLB from the University of Rajasthan in 1979.
Despite being a first-generation lawyer, he became one of the names in Rajasthan. Dhankhar has practiced in the Rajasthan High Court as well as the Supreme Court.
His political career took off in 1989 when he was successfully contested from Jhunjhunu in the Lok Sabha elections on Janata Dal ticket. The poll ticket was given to him primarily because of his links with his mentor Devi Lal. He then went on to become a Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs in 1990. In 1993, he was elected to the Rajasthan Assembly from Kishangarh on a Congress ticket. The former Supreme Court lawyer joined BJP in 2003. His brother Randeep Dhankhar is still with the Congress.
Leader of Opposition in the Rajasthan Assembly, Gulab Chand Kataria recounted that when “he (Dhankhar) was elected as MLA, Bhairon Singh Sekhwat was the chief minister. He was in the Congress that time. It was his arguments during debate on bills that caught the eye of Sekhwat. After losing the election, he shifted his base to Delhi and kept in touch mostly with central leaders. “
Former BJP MP Ram Singh Kaswan, kin of Dhankhar, vouched the networking skills of the senior leader. “He used to meet scores of people when he was in Delhi,” Kaswan said.
Dhankhar was in the team of lawyers that contested terror charges brought against Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader Indresh Kumar by the erstwhile UPA government, another BJP source said, adding this was the period when he grew close to the Sangh.
“He fought several cases on behalf of the RSS leader. His role as lawyer was noticed at that time and was rewarded when Amit Shah-Narendra Modi came to Delhi,” the source said.
As the governor of Bengal, Dhankhar had a series of flashpoints with the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government. While the Bengal government has often accused him to be ‘Centre’s man’, Dhankhar has maintained that he has followed his role as mandated by the Constitution.
Be it the Jadavpur University fiasco and the appointment of DGP, or the government’s handling of the Covid crisis and the relief efforts in the aftermath of Cyclone Amphan, Dhankhar was often at the opposite end with Mamata. Such was the acrimony between the two that a TMC delegation wrote to President Ram Nath Kovind in December 2020 urging him to recall the governor.
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Rajasthan election in mind
Kataria told ThePrint that Dhankhar has proved that he is not only well-versed with law but also can work in an opposition-ruled state like West Bengal. “Conducting the proceedings in the Rajya Sabha is also like managing the situation in Bengal. The NDA has a majority but the BJP needs people like Dhankhar who has learned the art of running government business in difficult situations,” he said, referring to the suspension of 12 Rajya Sabha members last year
A strong personality is needed to do justice to the role of Rajya Sabha chairman, Kataria added.
But the BJP selected Dhankhar for electoral consideration as well, given that right from the prime minister to other BJP leaders, everyone mentioned his role as Kisan Putra and for fighting for the rights of Jat farmers.
In Rajasthan, Jats comprise about 12 per cent of the total electorate. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot will be particularly caught in quandry with the nomination of Dhankhar as he cannot against his party’s whip to oppose the candidature, BJP sources said.
BJP MP from Ganganagar, Nihal Chand Chauhan, told ThePrint that the selection of Dhankhar will send the right message to the Jats before the assembly poll. “He was instrumental in fighting for the cause of Jat farmers… He had fought to get OBC status for Jats in Rajasthan.”
Former state BJP president Arun Chaturvedi, however, told ThePrint that in 1998 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee came in Sikar to address a rally of Jat farmers who were demanding reservation, the BJP stalwart had announced that the BJP will address the quota demand once a government is formed. “Gyan Prakash Pilania was leader of that agitation; Dhankhar was leading agitation in some other parts,” he added.
Other BJP leaders told ThePrint that though Dhankhar was not the face of the Jat agitation, his association with the cause would always be remembered in Rajasthan.
The community’s restlessness with the BJP is well-known, as seen in neighbouring Harayana after the party chose Manohar Lal Khattar, a non-Jat, as the chief minister. Subsequently, the BJP warmed up with the Jannayak Janata Party to assuage the anger of the community in that state.
A central BJP leader said the task is cut for Dhankhar when he takes over as the Rajya Sabha chairman. “He will have to fill the space left by Venkaiah Naidu, who has more legislative experience and had ties across political parties. Dhankhar’s combative nature may annoy the opposition. He will have to use his persuasion and legal acumen to handle the proceedings in the House of Elders,” the BJP leader said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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