In
India, the presidential election was held in India on 17 July 2017 with the
votes counted and the result is declared today. Our current President Pranab Mukherjee's
term of office will expire on 24 July 2017. Mukherjee declined to seek
re-election due to health issues.
Ram
Nath Kovind was the governor of Bihar, had the backing of the governing
National Democratic Alliance coalition, and went up against opposition
candidate Ms. Meira Kumar of the Indian National Congress in the vote. Kovind
secured two-thirds of the votes from the electoral college of elected members
of federal, state and union territory legislatures and was elected to a
five-year term as the President. His term of office will begin on 25 July 2017.
The
President of India is indirectly elected by an electoral college consisting of
the elected members of both houses of parliament – Lok sabha and Rajya sabha;
the elected members of the Legislative assemblies of the 29 states and the
elected members of the legislative assemblies of the Union Territories of Delhi
and Puducherry. Overall the members of the electoral college were eligible to
cast 1,098,882 votes, yielding a threshold for a majority of 549,442 votes. A
remarkable 99% votes were cast, that is the highest ever in an Presidential
elections.
During
his early career, Mr Kovind was a lawyer in the Delhi High Court and the Supreme
Court for 16 years. He made a debut into politics when he was elected as the
Rajya Sabha Member from Uttar Pradesh in 1994. He has served for two consecutive terms as a
Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament for 12 years, from 1994 till 2006. During his
appointment as the member of Rajya Sabha, he had the honor of representing
India in New York as well as addressed United Nations General Assembly in
October, 2002.
He
has always worked towards uplifting the lives of the marginalized society.
During his parliamentary tenure he emphasized on the requirement of basic
infrastructure for education in the rural areas. He helped in the construction
of school buildings in Uttar Pradesh as well as Uttarakhand under the Member of
Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) Scheme. He has also been an active
member of parliamentary committees like Parliamentary Committee on Welfare of
Scheduled Castes/Tribes, Parliamentary Committee on Social Justice and
Empowerment. He also held the office as a member of the Board of Management of
Dr. B.R Ambedkar University, Lucknow and Board of Governors of Indian Institute
of Management, Kolkata.
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