Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar was disappointed over the absence of 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, which was held just hours before Dhankar’s surprise resignation, sources said.

The Business Advisory Committee of the Rajya Sabha plays a key role in recommending the allocation of time for government legislative and other business. The meeting was called by Dhankar, the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. In the absence of the key ministers, Union Minister L Murugan represented the government at the meeting which was held at 4.30 pm.

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Murugan requested Dhankhar to reschedule the meeting for the following day. According to sources, the committee met twice on Monday, but both meetings remained inconclusive.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, who was part of the BAC, said that Vice President Dhankhar was not personally informed about the ministers’ absence.

“It waited for Shri Nadda and Shri Rijiju to arrive. They never came. Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar was not personally informed that the two senior Ministers were not attending. Rightly he took umbrage and rescheduled the BAC for today at 1 pm,” Ramesh said.

So “something very serious” happened yesterday between 1 pm and 4.30 pm to account for the deliberate absence of Nadda and Rijiju from the second BAC yesterday, he said in a post on Tuesday.

In a sudden and unexpected move late Monday evening, on the first day of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar resigned from his post citing medical reasons, leaving leaders across the political spectrum in disbelief.

On what turned out to be his final day in office, Dhankhar presided over proceedings in the Rajya Sabha and was involved in discussions on the impeachment motion against Justice Yashwant Varma. Apart from the Business Advisory Committee, he also met with opposition leaders, yet gave no indication of any health issues or plans to step down.

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Published By: Ajmal Published On: Jul 22, 2025