Bhubaneswar/New Delhi (by Nilanchal Naik): The 2022 Indian Presidential Election will be the 16th presidential election to be held in 18 July 2022 and counting of votes will take place on 21 July 2022. The polls will witness 4,809 electors, including MPs and MLAs, voting to elect President Kovind’s successor. The new president will be sworn in on July 25 2022.
Yashwant Sinha former AITC leader, has been unanimously chosen as common candidate of UPA and other opposition parties for 2022 Presidential Election while Draupadi Murmu is the official nominee of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance for the 2022 presidential election.
Talking about Draupadi Murmu , She will be the first President born in Independent India if get’s elected. At 64, she will be the youngest occupant of Rashtrapati Bhavan.
She is younger by a month to the sixth President Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy who was 64 years and two months when he took office. President Reddy was born on May 19, 1913.
On July 18, the day of the election, Murmu will be 64 years and one month; she was born on June 20, 1958.
Also she will be the first President born in a tribal family and the second woman to hold the First Citizen’s office after Pratibha Patil if she wins the election.
Let’s look into some unique facts regarding previous Presidents of India.
The other President to be born in Odisha was Varahagiri Venkata Giri or in short named V V Giri, a Telugu born in Brahmapur. He took the chair of president’s on 24th August 1969 and served as the 4th president of India till 24th August 1974 . He also served as the 3rd vice president of india from 13 May 1967 to 3 May 1969.
Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy, another Telugu, is the only President to be elected unopposed. Reddy served the sixth president of India having the shortest tenure as Lok Sabha Speaker before being elected to the Presidency. He served from 25 July 1977 to 25 July 1982.
He is also the first chief minister (Andhra Pradesh) elected President. The other two chief ministers elected Presidents were Giani Zail Singh from Punjab and Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma from Madhya Pradesh .
Ramaswamy Venkataraman and Pranab Mukherjee both served as India’s finance and defence ministers before becoming President as none other President worked for the stated department.
It is Dr Rajendra Prasad, the only President to serve two terms from . He remained in the office from 26th January 1950 till 13th May 1962 .It was in 1957, Prasad was re-elected to the presidency, becoming the only president to serve two full terms . He is the first president of India . He died 9 months after leaving Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Presidents Zakir Husain and Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed are the only Presidents who died in office. Zakir Husain Khan was an Indian economist and politician who served as the third president of India, from 13 May 1967 until his death on 3 May 1969. Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed was an Indian lawyer and politician served as the 5th president of India from 1974 to 1977. He is the second Muslim President of India, and also the second President of India to die in office.
Till now six Presidents have been conferred the Bharat Ratna.They are Dr Rajendra Prasad, Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Dr Zakir Husain, V V Giri, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam and Pranab Mukherjee.
Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam who is well known as Dr Kalam is the only President to receive the Bharat Ratna prior to becoming President. He was awarded the nation’s highest civilian honour five years before becoming President. He served as the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007.
A P J Abdul Kalam was the first aerospace scientist to become President and the only non-political person to hold office. He was never a member of any political party. He was inarguably the most popular occupant of the Presidency and known as the ‘People’s President’.
K R Narayanan was the first career diplomat to be elected President. An Indian Foreign Service officer, he was a former Indian ambassador to the United States, China, Thailand and Turkey. He served as the tenth president of India (1997–2002) and ninth vice president of India (1992–1997).
He is also the first from a Dalit family to be elected President.
Ram Nath Kovind is the second President from a Dalit family,who is serving as the 14th and current President of India since 25 July 2017. Ram Nath Kovind is also the first person from Uttar Pradesh to serve as President of India.
Presidents Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma worked with four prime ministers.
During his two times tenure Dr Radhakrishnan witnessed the changing of four Prime Ministes of India. They were Jawaharlal Nehru, Gulzari Lal Nanda (acting PM), Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi.
And Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma worked with P V Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, H D Deve Gowda and I K Gujral, other four Prime Ministes of India.
Seven of 14 Presidents hailed from south India. They are Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, was from Madras Presidency which comprised present Tamil Nadu and parts of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Odisha, Dr Zakir Husain belonging to Hyderabad state, presently the state of Andhra Pradesh, V V Giri a Telugu, born in present day Odisha, Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy from Andhra Pradesh, Ramaswamy Venkataraman from Tamil Nadu, K R Narayanan from Kerala and Dr A P J Abdul Kalam from Tamil Nadu.
Three presidents are from north India. They are Dr Rajendra Prasad from Bihar, Giani Zail Singh from Punjab and Ram Nath Kovind from Uttar Pradesh.
Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma was from central India belonging to Madhya Pradesh.
Two Presidents were from the eastern states. They were Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed from Assam and Pranab Mukherjee from West Bengal.
One of the President was from the west. She was none other than the first and, to date, only female president of Indiaof India Smt Pratibha Patil from Maharashtra . She served as the 12th president of India from 25 July 2007 to 25 July 2012.
The longest surviving former President was R Venkataraman. He was an Indian lawyer, Indian independence activist and politician who served as a Union Minister and as the eighth president of IIndia. His tenure was From 1987 to 1992. He died at 98.
The following Presidents served as Vice-President before being elected as President.
Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan alongside Dr Rajendra Prasad, Dr Zakir Husain alongside Dr S Radhakrishnan, V V Giri alongside Dr Zakir Husain, Ramaswamy Venkataraman alongside Giani Zail Singh, Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma alongside R Venkataraman and K R Narayanan alongside Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma.
