Three days after Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar resigned, his secretariat was closed down and a large number of government officers working with him repatriated to their parent cadre, two officials told HT on Thursday. But no room in the Vice Presidential enclave has been sealed off, they added. The newly constructed VP enclave has a separate wing for its secretariat. One by one, the officers have left and it has been locked. (PTI)

At the enclave, “hardly a few government officers are remaining and they too are waiting for the orders to go back to their parent cadre,” said an official, aware of the development, asking not to be named.

The newly constructed VP enclave has a separate wing for its secretariat. One by one, the officers have left and it has been locked. “The keys were handed over to the two under-secretaries,” said a second official, requesting anonymity.

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Dhankhar’s secretary, an officer of special duty, and the principal private secretary– all three are IAS officers– have left office. “It is nothing unusual as their appointment at the VP office was co-terminus with Dhankhar’s tenure. Usually, officials are given 15 days time to wrap up their work and report to their parent cadre. Some officials are still there but soon, they too will go,” said a government functionary.

The former VP is now allowed to have five personal staff, whose salary is paid from the government exchequer, and a Type VIII bungalow or its equivalent anywhere in India.

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Dhankhar, the first occupant of the palatial VP enclave, has a month to pack up his belongings and leave. According to functionaries, the former VP started packing after he submitted his resignation to President Droupadi Murmu late on Monday evening.

While its a standard rule that officers will be repatriated to the parent cadre after a minister of a constitutional authority demits office, the speed at which the officers left the enclave and the secretariat was closed down only serves to amplify theories floating around since his sudden exit that suggest that his relationship with the government had increasingly become strained.

Dhankhar, 74, cited health grounds after suddenly resigning on Monday, after presiding over the first day of the monsoon session of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha. He was sworn in as the VP on 11 August 2022, succeeding M Venkaiah Naidu.

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In his resignation letter to President Murmu, Dhankar said, “To prioritise health care and abide by medical advice, I hereby resign as Vice President of India, effective immediately, in accordance with Article 67(a) of the Constitution.”

HT reported on the fissures between Dhankhar and the government over the latter’s decision to admit an Opposition-sponsored notice for impeachment of justice Yashwant Varma in the Rajya Sabha even as a notice signed by a wide range of parties, was brought in the Lok Sabha.

Three senior leaders said since his resignation, he has not given an appointment to political leaders who were keen to meet him. Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) veteran Sharad Pawar and some Aam Aadmi Party leaders were among the lawmakers who wanted to meet Dhankhar, they added.