New Delhi: NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind has been elected the country’s 14th president after he won the July 17th elections presidential elections by a two-third majority against opposition UPA backed Meira Kumar.
In doing so, Kovind will become the only second Dalit leader after KR Narayanan to occupy the highest constitutional office in the country.
Kovind, 71 will be sworn in on July 25 when he takes the office from present president Pranab Mukherjee.
Final counting statistics said Kovind secured 7,02,044 electoral college votes thus grabbing 65.6 percent of total votes as compared to his counterpart Meira Kumar’s 3,67,314 votes. 522 MPs voted for Kovind while Meira Kumar got votes of only 225 parliamentarians.
Ram Nath Kovind, a former Bihar Governor has also served two terms as member of Rajya Sabha. Hailing from a humble family with simple lifestyle, Kovind was a trained lawyer by profession and used to practice at Delhi High Court and Supreme Court.