What happened on Monday in Rajya Sabha: Blow-by-blow account of the day when Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar quit

Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar sent shockwaves on Monday evening, causing politicians across party lines to shake their heads in disbelief. He resigned. In the resignation letter sent to President Droupadi Murmu, he cited health as the reason for his decision. However, it raised more questions than it could answer. As he was very active in his day-to-day work, and his secretary at 4:30 PM confirmed his participation in an event in Jaipur on Thursday, no one believed it. Rumours are circulating, and conspiracy theories are being floated. We will try to understand what happened that day in the Rajya Sabha. 

11:00 AM

The much-awaited Monsoon session began on Monday, and the opposition parties in the Rajya Sabha huddled to get the required number of signatures, 50 MPs, for serving a notice for removal of Justice Yashwant Varma in connection with cash discovery row.

12:00 PM

The ruling party members were still trying to get the required number, 100, of MPs in the Lok Sabha to serve a notice for removal of Justice Verma. The BJP wanted to give the notice to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. Its strategy was to emerge as a champion of the fight against corruption, and the saffron party did not want to share the credit with the Opposition. 

1:00 PM

Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar convened a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) to discuss the date and time for the discussion. The Opposition wanted more time to ponder some issues as it did not agree to the government proposals. Dhankhar announced that another BAC meeting would be held at 4.30 PM to iron out the differences between the government and the Opposition. 

3:00 PM

The Opposition issued a notice to the Rajya Sabha chairman for the removal of Justice Verma. 

3:12 PM

Congress MP Jairam Ramesh took to X to say that 68 MPs from different parties had submitted a notice for removal of Justice Verma to the Rajya Sabha chairman. The government was not happy with Dhankhar for accepting the motion of the Opposition, upstaging its own initiative. 

4:05 PM

Dhankhar announced on the floor of the house about the receipt of the notice. He also said that if such a notice is served in both houses of the Parliament, the same day, the Rajya Sabha chairman and the Lok Sabha speaker will sit together to constitute a committee to probe the charges. As the Lok Sabha was yet to receive a similar notice, the ruling party members said that they were shocked and confused at this unexpected development. Dhankhar also referred to the notice for removal of Justice Yadav of the Allahabad High Court. It too did not go down well with the ruling party that wanted to go easy on that notice. 

4:40 PM

The BAC meeting began, and the opposition members went there to attend it. But no one from the government, neither Kiren Rijiju nor JP Nadda attended the meeting. Later, the next day, Rijiju clarified that he had earlier informed the chairman of the upper house that he would not attend the meeting due to prior commitment. 

9:25 PM

Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar posted his resignation addressed to the president on X.