NEW DELHI: A promising politician who had disappeared from public memory until Prime Minister Narendra Modi resurrected him by anointing him as West Bengal Governor.
His run-ins with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress regime are now part of political legend. Less than a month before the Prime Minister sprung the surprise and announced Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar as the NDA’s vice-presidential nominee, he shot off a letter to Banerjee seeking the withdrawal of a remark the mercurial chief minister had made against the BJP at a public meeting in Asansol.
In her inimitable style, Banerjee urged her party workers on July 21 to launch a “jihad” against the BJP. Dhankhar took to Twitter to clarify that he had every reason to be peeved.
Dhankhar’s brief tenure — he took charge at the Kolkata Raj Bhavan in July 2019 — was marked by frequent confrontations with the TMC in general and Banerjee in particular.
From his attacks against the TMC on political violence in the state to minority appeasement, corruption and politicisation of the police and the administration, the Dhankhar-Banerjee spats were so frequent — often evoking laughter and derision in equal measure, at least in the TMC — that the fiery Bengal chief minister blocked him from following her on social media.
But Dhankhar, like a bruised — but not battered — boxer persisted with his jabs. Until Modi pulled the vice-presidential nomination rabbit out of the hat, Dhankhar’s pugnacity stems partly from his training as a lawyer.
Born at Kithana village in Rajasthan’s Jhunjhunu district, marked by stunning havelis and Rajput fortresses, Dhankhar grew up in Chittorgarh before leaving for Jaipur where he went to Maharaja’s College before graduating with honours in Physics.
He then forayed into further studies, taking an LLB from Jaipur University in 1978-79 while also being involved in student politics. He took to practising law, first at the Rajasthan High Court and subsequently at the Supreme Court.
Extraordinary journey
Jagdeep Dhankhar, a Jat, was born in 1951 into a farmer’s family in Kithana, a small village in Rajasthan.
He started as a lawyer and has practised in Supreme Court and the Rajasthan HC.
He joined the Congress when PV Narasimha Rao became the Prime Minister. But with the rise of Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan politics, he shifted to the BJP.
Dhankhar was appointed the Governor of West Bengal in July 2019. Since then, he has had frequent run-ins with the Mamata Banerjee-led government.