Who will be next V-P? The Election Commission of India said on Wednesday that it has started the process of electing a new Vice President, days after Jagdeep Dhankhar resigned from the post.
Dhankhar, 74, assumed office in August 2022. His five-year term would end in August 2027. Dhankhar’s abrupt resignation means a new Vice President has not been elected within the next two months
The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and opposition INDIA bloc have started a hunt for their candidates for the election to the office of Vice President of India. With numbers favouring the NDA, more names have emerged from the ruling camp in the past three days.
Who is in the race?
Among the names doing rounds for the NDA’s Vice President pick are Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh and Union Minister Ram Nath Thakur.
The ruling camp is keen on fielding a candidate from the backwards or extremely backwards communities as Dhankhar’s successor, according to reports. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President JP Nadda met Ram Nath Thakur on Wednesday, sparking speculation about his candidature for the V-P post.
Who is Ram Nath Thakur?
Janata Dal—United’s two-time Rajya Sabha MP from Bihar, Ram Nath Thakur, is the son of socialist icon, Bharat Ratna recipient, and former Bihar Chief Minister Karpoori Thakur.
Currently, the minister of state for agriculture in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet, Ram Nath is credited with carrying forward the movement initiated by Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan, and Jan Nayak Karpoori Thakur to empower the underprivileged.
Thakur belongs to the Nai (barber) community under the Extremely Backwards Class (EBC) category, which constitutes more than 36 per cent of Bihar’s population. His candidature, if finalised, assumes significance considering the upcoming assembly polls in Bihar.
Thakur is considered close to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The previous Modi government’s decision to confer the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award in India, upon the late Karpoori Thakur, Ram Nath Thakur’s father, just before the notification of the Lok Sabha elections 2024 was seen as a strong political statement and considered as a synthesis of BJP’s Mandir-Mandal politics.
His candidature, if finalised, assumes significance considering the upcoming assembly polls in Bihar.
Ram Nath Thakur, an EBC leader, was elected to Rajya Sabha as a JD(U) member in April 2014. He has been a member of the Upper House since then. He has been Union Minister of State for Agriculture since June 2024.
