Pranab Mukherjee elected 13 th president of India
23 Jul 2012
Pranab Kumar Mukherjee, 76, was yesterday elected the 13th president of India yesterday in a contest, the outcome of which was a foregone conclusion.
The UPA nominee defeated former Lok Sabha speaker, P A Sangma, by 3,97,776 value votes with him polling 3,095 votes, (value 7,13,763) with Sangma getting 1,483 votes (3,15,987).
Mukherjee who will be sworn in by the chief justice of India S H Kapadia in New Delhi on 25 July - secured 68.12 per cent of the total 10,47,971 value votes cast by 4,659 members of the state/territorial assemblies and parliament.
Sangma, backed by the NDA, the AIADMK and the BJD could manage only 30.15 per cent of the votes.
A total of 81 votes turned out to be invalid, to the value of 18,221, including that of Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav, whose second ballot, after erroneously voting for Sangma, was invalidated by the Election Commission, as it violated the vote of secrecy.
Among the 748 members of parliament (excluding the nominated members who have no voting right) with the total vote value of 5,29,584, Mukherjee garnered 527 votes (3,73,116) as against Sangma's 206 votes (1,45,848).
