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Sunday, Jul 22, 2007
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Prathibha patil elected President

Anita Joshua

Defeats lone opponent Bhairon Singh Shekhawat by an impressive margin

— Photo: V. Sudershan

A new era begins: President-elect Pratibha Patil, flanked by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, after her victory in New Delhi on Saturday.

NEW DELHI: Pratibha Devisingh Patil was declared elected the 12th President on Saturday evening. On July 25, she will become the first woman to head the Indian Republic.

Ms. Patil defeated her lone opponent, Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, by an impressive margin of 3,06,810 in an electoral college with votes valued at 10.98 lakh, in what has been described as the most keenly — and, hotly — contested poll.

As a candidate of the United Progressive Alliance and the Left parties, Ms. Patil secured 65.82 per cent of the total votes cast, while the NDA-supported Shekhawat polled 33.18 per cent.

Reflecting the UPA-Left’s national spread, Ms. Patil made her presence felt in every State, whereas Mr. Shekhawat drew a blank in West Bengal, Kerala, Tripura and Mizoram. He secured healthy margins in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described Ms. Patil’s victory as “a vote against divisive forces.”

Soon after the results were declared, Mr. Shekhawat announced his resignation from the office of Vice-President, though his term was to last till August 18.

Counting stalled

The result was declared at 5.25 p.m., after nearly seven-and-a-half-hours of counting conducted at Parliament House. The process was stalled more than once in the absence of the requisite number of National Democratic Alliance representatives in the counting room.

Briefing mediapersons, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi — who doubled up as Ms. Patil’s official representative for the election — said there was evidence of cross-voting in her favour in Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland, Orissa, Arunachal Pradesh and Rajasthan. Madhya Pradesh recorded the largest number of invalid votes: all of them were marked in favour of Mr. Shekhawat but with the words ‘Jai Shri Ram’ or ‘Om’.

At the Parliament level, 16 “extra” votes came for Ms. Patil. Exceeding the Congress calculation that 426 MPs — from the ruling arrangement and the Bahujan Samaj Party — would vote for her, Ms. Patil got 442 votes from both Houses of Parliament.

Counting for the States took much of the time because of the variation in the value of votes. While results from all States came in by 4.30 p.m., counting of votes polled by MPs was wrapped up within the next hour. At the end, Ms. Patil’s tally stood at 6,38,116 and Mr. Shekhawat’s 3,31,306. After counting of votes from the States was through, Ms. Patil established a lead of 1,58,130, bagging votes valued at 3,25,180.

Dig at Advani

The first reaction to the result came from External Affairs Minister and Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee. Taking a dig at Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani’s call for a conscience vote, he said: “Conscience has gone on the other side.”

Mr. Dasmunsi said he hoped that Mr. Advani would respect the verdict as the real voice of conscience.

Earlier, even as the results from the States came in, a sense of jubilation swept the UPA quarters with senior leaders, from Congress president Sonia Gandhi, making a beeline for 11 South Avenue, the President-elect’s camp office in the capital.

Dancing and bursting of crackers marked the celebrations outside the AICC headquarters on Akbar Road.

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