Ram Nath Kovind to be India’s next president -Governance Now

Ram Nath Kovind to be India’s next president

Kovind comfortably defeated UPA nominee Meira Kumar in the presidential election

GN Bureau | July 20, 2017

#Ram Nath Kovind #Narendra Modi #Meira Kumar #president #election #NDA #UPA #Nitish Kumar

(Photo: governor.bih.nic.in)

India’s 14th president is going to be former Bihar governor Ram Nath Kovind, a dalit. He triumphed over former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar in the vote count that took place on Thursday.

Kovind succeeds Pranab Mukherjee, who demits office on July 25. He becomes the second dalit president after KR Narayanan.

Read: The long road from Paraukh village

The presidential poll saw nearly 99 per cent voting on Monday. Ballotting took place simultaneously at the Parliament House, 29 state assemblies and two union territories with assemblies.

The president is elected by an electoral college that comprises all MPs and MLAs. The electoral college has 10,98,903 votes. A candidate needs over 50 percent votes to win the poll. A total of 4,895 voters -- 4,120 MLAs and 776 elected MPs -- were eligible to vote. Madhya Pradesh minister Narottam Mishra did not cast his vote as he was disqualified over the allegations of "paid news".

Ram Nath Kovind, 71, is a farmer's son and had humble origins. He is lawyer and has served two terms as a member of the Rajya Sabha.

Read: Not above caste, but about it

After filing his nomination papers, Kovind had said: “I will always try and it is also my belief that the president’s post should be above politics.”

“Since the time I became governor, I am no longer part of a political group,” he had assured.

Meira Kumar, who was pitted against Kovind, said before the vote count began: "We have fought a principled fight... we are fighting for values that most people of the country believe in."

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) had extended support to Kovind, breaking away from the opposition ranks.

Kovind’s victory seemed to have been a foregone conclusion, so much so that prime minister Narenda Modi on Sunday, a day ahead of voting, expressed confidence in his victory. He was quoted as saying that the “way ahead was clear” and he would be delighted to work with Kovind.

Comments

Other News

Bullet Train Project: Third mountain tunnel breakthrough achieved

A major engineering milestone has been achieved in the Mumbai–Ahmedabad Bullet Train Project with the successful breakthrough of the third mountain tunnel (MT-07) at Ambesari village in Dahanu Taluka of Palghar district, Maharashtra. With this achievement, three mountain

Supreme Court gets five new judges

Five new judges were appointed to the Supreme Court of India on Monday. "Vide Notifications of even number dated 01.06.2026, in exercise of the powers conferred by clause (2) of Article 124 of the Constitution of India, the Hon’ble President of India is pleased to appoint (i) Shri

Astonishing breadth and depth of ancient Indian knowledge systems

The Greatest Books of Ancient India: Incredible Ideas about Science, Music, Maths, Art and More By Dr. Pradeep Chakravarthy and Dr. R. Thiagarajan Hachette India, 208 pages, Rs 399

Strong El Nino threat over India`s monsoon, food & water security

India is heading into the southwest monsoon season this year under the shadow of a rapidly strengthening El Nino, with meteorologists warning that the climate phenomenon could significantly disrupt rainfall patterns, intensify heat stress and place additional pressure on the country’s agriculture-d

How corporates can nudge real change

The Business Of Business Is (Not) Just Business: How Behavioural Tools Can Drive Real Change Edited by Sutapa Banerjee, with Foreword by Nadir Godrej HarperCollins, 336 pages, Rs 699

India stopped jailing people for paperwork. Now comes the hard part

A small pharmacist in Rajkot neglects to change a notice in his store under a little-known clause of a public health law. This was not only a non-compliance matter, but also a criminal offence, and a jail sentence was the punishment under the old system. Not a fine. Not a warning. Jail. Now scale