Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar’s resignation on Monday evening was “totally unexpected”, and there seemed to be more to it than what met the eye, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh remarked.

Dhankhar cited medical reasons for stepping down from his post on the day when the Monsoon Session of Parliament began.

Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh on Monday, in a post on X, claimed that Dhankhar had scheduled a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee for Tuesday afternoon and was also expected to make “major announcements related to the judiciary”.

Reiterating the claim in another post on Tuesday morning, Ramesh said that there were “far deeper reasons” behind Dhankhar’s resignation.

He said that on Monday, Dhankhar had chaired a meeting of the Rajya Sabha’s Business Advisory Committee at 12.30 pm, which was attended by most members, including Leader of the House JP Nadda and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju.

It was decided that the committee would meet again at 4.30 pm, the Congress MP claimed. However, when the meeting reconvened in the evening, both Nadda and Rijiju were absent, he said.

Ramesh added that the vice president was not personally informed about their non-attendance and he took objection to the absence of the two ministers.

The meeting was rescheduled for 1 pm on Tuesday.

The Congress leader said: “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 [Business Advisory Committee] yesterday.”

Dhankhar became the vice president on August 11, 2022. His five-year term would have concluded in 2027. The vice-president is also the chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of the Parliament.

In his resignation letter to President Droupadi Murmu, Dhankhar said he was stepping down with immediate effect.

On Tuesday afternoon, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wished Dhankhar good health. “[Dhankhar] has got many opportunities to serve our country in various capacities, including as the vice president of India,” Modi said on social media.

On Monday evening, several Opposition leaders raised questions over the timing of Dhankhar’s resignation.

Samajwadi Party MP Javed Ali Khan said that Dhankhar appeared to be in good health while attending the House. “Today, it did not seem like there was a health issue,” The Indian Express quoted him as saying.

Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Sudhakar Singh made a similar claim.

“He looked healthy while presiding over the proceedings,” the newspaper quoted Singh as saying. “There is no truth to this [health reason]. Within the Bharatiya Janata Party and the government, this is a time of Constitutional crisis. I believe this is political distress. The truth will come out.”

Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal, however, said that he would not want to “speculate” on the reasons for the resignation.

“He has said that it is because of health reasons,” he told ANI. “I can say that he was one of the most proactive Rajya Sabha Chairmen that we have seen over the years. He would always persuade members on both sides to work together.”

The Opposition has had several disagreements with Dhankhar in the past, often related to his conduct as Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

In December, the INDIA bloc submitted a no-confidence motion against the vice president, citing “partisan conduct” in the Upper House.

In their notice, the Opposition had alleged that Dhankhar had taken it upon himself to be an “impassioned spokesperson” of the government’s policies in public forums. They also claimed that he conducted the proceedings of the Rajya Sabha in an “extremely biased manner”.

The Opposition had also expressed concerns regarding him interrupting their members when they attempted to speak. In their notice, they had said that Dhankhar had repeatedly made disparaging comments about MPs belonging to Opposition parties publicly and criticising them when they expressed issues with the functioning of the government.