Jagdeep Dhankhar vs Margaret Alva: Lawyer vs lawyer in vice-president polls

It is now definite that the post of vice president of India will be held either by NDA's Jagdeep Dhankhar or the opposition's Margaret Alva, both lawyers

The NDA and the opposition have declared their candidates for the August 6 vice-president elections. The question of who will succeed the current vice president Venkaiah Naidu, after his term gets over on August 10, has been making rounds in the echelons of the politically powerful. But it is now definite that the seat will be held either by NDA's Jagdeep Dhankhar or the opposition's Margaret Alva.

Who is Jagdeep Dhankhar?

Currently serving as the governor of West Bengal, Dhankhar hails from the Jhunjhunu district in Rajasthan. He was born on May 18, 1951, in a Jat family.

He graduated in Physics with honours from Maharaja College, Jaipur. Later, he studied at Jaipur University and received an LLB degree in 1979.

Dhankhar enrolled in the Bar Council of Rajasthan in the same year, 1979. In 1987, he became the youngest President of the Rajasthan High Court Bar Association at just 36. He was designated as a senior advocate in 1990.

His political journey began in 1989 when he won a Lok Sabha seat from Jhunjhunu. In 1990, in the minority government of Chandrashekhar, he was appointed as the minister of state for parliamentary affairs. Former deputy PM Devi Lal is considered to be Dhankhar's mentor at the start of his political journey.  

Soon, he joined the Congress party when PV Narasimha Rao became the Prime Minister. He served as a member of Rajasthan Vidhan Sabha from 1993-98.

However, his political journey came to a halt with the rise of Ashok Gehlot. For BJP, Vasundhara Raje emerged as the leading face. Dhankhar returned to being a lawyer until he was appointed as the governor of West Bengal in 2019.

If elected, Dhankhar will be the first member of the other backward classes (OBC) community to hold the key post.

Who is Margaret Alva?

Alva was born in April 1942 in a Roman Catholic family in Mangalore. She completed her graduation from Mount Carmel College, Bengaluru. Later, she obtained a law degree from the Government Law College, Bengaluru.

She married Niranja Alva in 1964 and became the daughter-in-law of Violet Alva and Joachim Alva, both former members of the Parliament.

Alva was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1974 at just 32. She was re-elected to the upper house in 1980, 1986 and 1992 and stayed as a member of the Rajya Sabha till 1997.

She was also chosen as the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and the Minister for Youth and Sports and Women and Child Development in 1984 by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

In 1999, she was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Uttara Kannada constituency in Karnataka. She has also served as the 17th Governor of Goa, 23rd Governor of Gujarat, 20th Governor of Rajasthan and 4th Governor of Uttarakhand until the end of her tenure in August 2014.  

Between 2004 and 2009, she served as the general secretary of the All India Congress Committee.