Ram Nath Kovind elected as India’s 14th President

Former governor Ram Nath Kovind was elected as India’s 14th President. He will be only the second Dalit leader after K R Narayanan since Independence to occupy India’s highest ceremonial post.
In the final vote count, NDA nominee Kovind received 65.6% votes translating into 702,044 electoral college votes, while UPA candidate Meira Kumar managed to get 34.35% (367,314 votes). 522 MPs voted for Kovind, while 225 parliamentarians voted for Meira Kumar. In the last Presidential polls held in 2012, Pranab Mukherjee had defeated PA Sangma by over 69% votes.

About Ram Nath Kovind

Ram Nath Kovind was born on October 1, 1945, in Kanpur Dehat, Uttar Pradesh. He was an advocate by profession and had practiced in Supreme Court and Delhi High Court.
Prior to started practising the law, he had cleared Civil Services Examination in third attempt but did not join as he was selected for allied services. He had entered in active politics in 1994 when he became member of Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh. He had served as an MP for two consecutive terms till 2006.
He also had served as national spokesperson of BJP. He was also former President of the BJP Dalit Morcha (1998-2002) and also President of the All-India Koli Samaj as well as the SC/ST representative at IIM-Calcutta. He also had represented India in United Nations in New York and addressed United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in October 2002. He also had worked as the private secretary of then Prime Minister Morarji Desai in 1977.
Kovind also had served as a member of the Board of Management of Dr. BR Ambedkar University, Lucknow. He was also a member of the Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Kolkata. In August 2015, he was appointed governor of Bihar.

Month: Current Affairs - July, 2017