It seems even the BJP top brass was unaware of Jagdeep Dhankhar's move to resign from the office of the Vice-President. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's response to his resignation was terse and cold.
Published Jul 22, 2025 | 5:26 PM ⚊ Updated Jul 22, 2025 | 5:26 PM
Jagdeep Dhankhar, the 14th Vice-President of India.
Synopsis: What made Jagdeep Dhankhar step down as the Vice-President mid-term? Was it the health issue cited in the resignation letter? Or was there more to it?
Political circles in the national capital got in a tizzy after Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar dropped a bombshell, barely hours after chairing an eventful first day of Rajya Sabha’s monsoon session on Monday, 21 July.
In a move that had all the trappings of a political surgical strike, he announced his resignation mid-term. In the resignation letter sent to President Droupadi Murmu, Dhankhar, the 14th Vice President of India, cited medical reasons to step down from the office “in accordance with Article 67 (a) of the Constitution.
“A Vice-President may, by writing under his hand addressed to the President, resign his office,” says Article 67 (a).
Dhankhar’s announcement, which he made on X (previously Twitter), took the nation by storm. No one was expecting such a dramatic move, since his term extended till 10 August 2027.
Additionally, the 74-year-old Dhankhar, too, did not give any hint. Instead, addressing an event at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi on 10 July, he said, “I will retire at the right time, August 2027, subject to divine intervention.”
While it is not clear what “divine intervention” had forced him to resign, the medical reasons cited are not far from the truth. However, it is, apparently, not a cause for immediate resignation.
Dhankhar has health issues. In March, he was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, where he underwent an angioplasty. In June, he fainted while attending the Golden Jubilee celebrations at the Kumaon University in Uttarakhand.
However, despite such medical setbacks, he was active in Parliament and outside.
MPs recalled that Dhankhar did not display any sign of a planned resignation when he chaired the Rajya Sabha on Monday. Jairam Ramesh of the Congress said he had met Dhankhar after the session, and even spoke to him over the phone around 7:30 pm. Still, the Congress leader did not get any hint of his resignation.
Several theories started floating after his resignation. Most asserted that it was not pre-planned. Those who propounded the theory pointed out that the Vice President’s Secretariat had issued a communique saying Dhankhar would be travelling to Jaipur on 23 July, to attend a meeting of CREDAI, the apex body of private real estate developers.
If the resignation was planned, his secretariat would not have issued the communique.
Some others, meanwhile, felt a discord had been brewing between the now-former Vice-President and the ruling dispensation for a while. His proximity with opposition leaders like Mallikarjun Kharge and Aravind Kejriwal, they said, rubbed the BJP’s central leadership the wrong way. Additionally, though widely seen as a leader toeing the BJP line, Dhankhar had often voiced his views that did not always align with the party’s stated stand.
For instance, on 3 December 2024, Dhankhar said the farmers were in distress, and they resorting to protests was not good for the overall well-being of the country.
“There is a need for introspection because farmers are in distress and suffering. If such institutes (like ICAR) were alive and making contributions, then this wouldn’t be the situation. Such institutions are located in every nook and corner of the country, but the conditions of farmers are still the same,” he said during the centenary celebrations of the Central Institute for Research on Cotton Technology in Mumbai.
An outspoken Dhankhar did not spare the judiciary either. On 17 April, he came down on the Supreme Court for setting a deadline for the President to clear Bills passed by state legislative assemblies. He explicitly told the sixth batch of Rajya Sabha interns that India was not meant to have a democracy where judges function as lawmakers, the Executive, and even as a super Parliament.
Dhankhar further termed Article 142 (which the Supreme Court had invoked) “a nuclear missile against democratic forces”.
Two months after making the statement, Dhankhar dropped the bombshell, announcing that he had quit the office of the Vice President.
Hours before he made the announcement, Dhankhar, as the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, announced in the House that he had received a letter signed by more than 50 Opposition MPs calling demanding the impeachment of Justice Yashwant Varma, after wads of burnt currency notes were found in his Delhi residence. Dhankhar instructed the Secretary-General to proceed with the matter.
It has been said that the Treasury Benches were caught unaware when Dhankhar accepted the letter. Reports said the ruling party was planning to move against Justice Varma in the Lok Sabha, and Dhankhar accepting the Opposition letter and instructing further action on it stripped the NDA of an opportunity to claim credit.
Unconfirmed reports said a miffed BJP leadership spoke to Dhankhar, and the latter anticipated a no-confidence motion by the ruling party. Earlier, in an unprecedented move, the Opposition INDIA bloc had expressed no faith in the Vice-President, accusing the Chair of being biased, and sought an impeachment on 10 December 2024.
Two days later, Deputy Chairman of the House, Harivansh, dismissed the motion, saying it was “an act of impropriety, being severely flawed and drawn in haste to mar his (Dhankhar’s) reputation”.
“I express my deep gratitude to the Hon’ble Prime Minister and the esteemed Council of Ministers. Prime Minister’s cooperation and support have been invaluable, and I have learned much during my time in office,” Dhankhar wrote in his resignation letter, which he shared on X around 9.30 pm on Monday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not publicly respond to Dhankhar’s resignation till Tuesday afternoon. The response was terse and cold: “Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar Ji has got many opportunities to serve our country in various capacities, including as the Vice President of India. Wishing him good health.”
Many felt Modi, too, was kept in the dark. Dhankhar, apparently, had not consulted the BJP higher-ups before making his move and sending the letter straight to the President.
Meanwhile, questions were also raised over the absence of the Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha, JP Nadda, and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju at the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting on Monday evening.
The Opposition felt something had happened on Monday afternoon. “So something very serious happened yesterday between 1 pm and 4.30 pm to account for the deliberate absence of Shri Nadda and Shri Rijiju,” Jairam Ramesh said in an X post.
Nadda on Tuesday clarified that Rijiju and he were caught up in some other work.
For the time being, the developments — or the “divine intervention” — that led to Dhankhar’s resignation are known only to the former Vice-President and the BJP’s top brass. However, it is likely to be in the public domain before long.
