NEW DELHI, 22 July 2007 — India has got its first woman president in Pratibha Patil who won one of the bitterest political campaigns to the top post in the country’s 60-year-old post-independence history.
Pratibha, 72, was voted yesterday as the 13th president of the country. She won by 306,810 votes against her rival Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, who contested the July 19 presidential election as an independent backed by opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
Expressing thanks to people soon after the results were announced, Pratibha said: “I am grateful to the voters...I am grateful to the people of India, the men and women of India. This is the victory of the principles which our Indian people uphold.”
Describing Pratibha’s victory as a vote against “politics of divisiveness,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said: “The victory of Pratibha Patil for the august office of president is the victory of those forces which seek to unite our people.” He said this after he along with United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi visited Pratibha to congratulate her. Pratibha’s victory would “strengthen the foundation of our secular republic,” Manmohan said.
Expressing elation at India getting its first woman president, Sonia said: “I thank everyone, all UPA leaders, voters, (Bahujan Samaj Party chief) Mayawati and the other leaders who supported Pratibha Patil. It is a special moment of women and men too.”
Extending congratulations to Pratibha, the defeated candidate Shekhawat said that he would continue to “work for the uplift of poor and deprived sections of the society so that they can enjoy their fundamental rights with dignity.” He has sought time for a meeting with President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to submit his resignation.
Pratibha got 325,180 votes from the state legislators and 442 of the total 682 MPs who cast their votes, paving her way to the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the official residence of the president.
An MP’s vote value is 706 and an MLA’s varies from state to state according to its population.
Pratibha, who had been haunted by unsubstantiated opposition charges of corruption, fraud and improprieties, has won almost 11,000 more votes than expected. Shekhawat got 331,306 votes.
Congress party supporters erupted in jubilation across the country, bursting crackers, distributing sweets, dancing to drums and raising slogans in favor of Pratibha and party President Sonia Gandhi.
Pratibha’s native Jalgaon village in Maharashtra and her husband Devisingh Ransingh Shekhawat’s native place in Rajasthan’s Sikar have been in celebration mood since morning as her victory was a foregone conclusion.
Counting began at 11 a.m. yesterday with Election Commission officials unsealing ballot boxes that arrived from 30 assemblies and the Parliament House.
Thursday’s poll had been preceded by the most acerbic campaign, which many political analysts said had dented the prestige of the country’s highest office.
The ruling Congress party had in turn charged Shekhawat of protecting his family members in a land scam and of serving the colonial police when India was fighting against the British rule in the pre-1947 era.
While a reticent Pratibha denied the charges during her national tour for campaign, Shekhawat’s party went on raising fresh charges against the former Rajasthan governor.
The legislators in Kerala, Mizoram and Tripura voted only for Pratibha as Shekhawat drew a blank in both the states. It was a sweep for Pratibha in her home state Maharashtra, where she won the support of 223 MLAs leaving 58 for Shekhawat.
