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| Dr Rajendra Prasad (L) was the only President who won two consecutive Presidential elections. |
Presidents of India occupies the top most executive post of the country. He is the Head of state and Commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Though s/he doesn’t run the government directly, the Prime Minister does that on behalf of the President in accordance with the Constitution. The president is elected indirectly by the people through their representatives in both houses of Parliament and legislative assemblies of states and union territories, including National Capital Territory of Delhi. The President serves a five- year term.
Since independence, India has elected remarkable statesmen and leaders in different walks of life from across the country as its president. The presidential election has also often been a battle of ideologies between the opposing camps. Even in Presidential Election 2017, Meira Kumar of the opposition camp said her’s is a battle of ideology against Ram Nath Kovind of the NDA camp.
Here we take a look at the result of all presidential elections since 1952 until now:
15th Presidential election (2017): Ram Nath Kovind, former Bihar governor and BJP leader, has won against opposition’s Meira Kumar, a Dalit leader and former Lok Sabha speaker. Kovind secured 7,02,644 votes against Meira Kumar’s 3,67,314 votes.
14th Presidential Election (2012): Pranab Mukherjee won the election by securing 7,13,763 votes against PA Sangma who got 315,987 votes. MLAs from 30 state assemblies including from the National Capital Territory of Delhi and Puducherry cast their votes.
13th Presidential Election (2007): Pratibha Devisingh Patil became the first woman president with 6,38,116 votes against Bhairon Singh Shekhawat (331,306 votes).
12th Presidential Election (2002): Dr A.P.J Abdul Kalam won with 9,22,884 votes, while his rival Lakshmi Sahgal who got 107,366 votes.
11th Presidential Election (1997): K.R.Narayanan became 11th President with 9,56,290 votes. his rival T. N. Seshan got 50,631 The election commission increased the security deposit from Rs 2,500 to Rs 15,000, and the number of proposers and seconders increased from 10 to 50.
10th Presidential Election (1992): Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma won the election by securing 6,75,804 votes of the 10,26,188 votes polled against G. G. Swell (346,485 votes).
9th Presidential Election (1987): R Venkataraman won with 7,40,148 votes against VR Krishna Iyer (2,81,550 votes). As many as 22 MLAs were disqualified by the speaker of the Punjab Assembly.
8th Presidential Election (1982): Gyani Zail Singh won after securing 7,54,113 votes.His nearest rival H.R. Khanna who got 2,82,685 votes
7th Presidential Election (1977): For the first time, a candidate won the election without contesting as only Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy’s nomination was upheld from among the 37 candidates.
6th Presidential Election (1974): Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed won by securing 7,65,587 votes, while his rival Tridib Chaudhuri, from West Bengal who got 189,196 votes. As there was a rise of contestants, the election commission introduced the condition of 10 voters as proposers and another 10 as seconders. The security deposit was raised to Rs 2,500.
5th Presidential Election (1969): V.V.Giri won by securing 4,01,515 votes against rival Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy (4,05,427) votes. Though 15 candidates filed their nominations, all were eliminated except V.V.Giri and N.Sanjeevan Reddy. The first preferential votes could not decide the winner in this election.
4th Presidential Election (1967): Dr. Zakir Hussain won with 4,71,244 votes against rival Koka Subbarao (2,63,971 votes). In this election, the value of the Parliamentarians’ votes were increased as 1961 population census was taken into consideration.
3rd Presidential Election (1962): Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan won by 5,53,067 votes against rivals Chowdhry Hari Ram (6,341 votes) and Yamuna Prasad Trisulia (3,537 votes). MLAs from 15 state assemblies took part in the election process.
2nd Presidential Election (1957): Dr Rajendra Prasad won again securing 4,59,698 votes against rivals Chowdhry Hari Ram (2,672 votes) and Nagendra Narayan Das (2,000 votes). As many as 496 Parliamentarians including MPs from Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and MLAs from 14 state assemblies casted their vote.
1st Presidential Election (1952): Dr Rajendra Prasad became the first President of Independent India by winning 5,07,400 votes against his nearest rival K. T. Shah who got 92,827 votes. (Courtesy: Financial Express)
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