Who will win the next presidential election? This was the question that had set the country’s political corridors buzzing ahead of the Presidential polls today.
The former Bihar Governor and Dalit leader Ram Nath Kovind has finally won the race to the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The government backed candidate won two-third of the votes cast by an electoral college of MP’s and state lawmakers. With a total of 4,79,585 electoral college votes in his favour, Mr Kovind leads the opposition candidate Meira Kumar by 2.75 lakh votes after counting was completed in the parliament house and 11 states
His chances of winning were so clear that even Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated him on his imminent victory in advance; a day before voting was to begin on Monday. On the day when the lawmakers voted to elect India’s next President, Union Minister and Vice Presidential candidate M Venkaiah Naidu said that the National Democratic Alliance presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind will win with a comfortable margin.
TODAY India has its 14th president as Ram Nath Kovind. It was already clear that BJP candidate Ram Nath Kovind was likely to be the next occupant of the Rashtrapati Bhawan. Former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, who was nominated by 17 opposition parties, fell short in the numbers game.
Several other political parties which were not the part of the NDA also backed Kovinnd. The list includes Biju Janata Dal, Telangana Rashtra Samithi in Telangana, different factions of AIADMK, and the YSR Congress. For them, the presidential election is one opportunity to show which side of the national politics they belong to.
