The President of the Republic of India is the Head of State of India and the Commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces.
The President is indirectly elected by the people through elected members of both the houses of the Parliament of India, the Legislative Assemblies of all the states of India and the Legislative Assembly of the Union Territory of Pondicherry, as well as, the Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi and serves for a renewable term of five years. The oath of the President is taken in the presence of the Chief Justice of India, and in his/her absence, by the most senior judge of the Supreme Court of India.
Although the Article 53 of the Constitution of India states that the President can exercise his powers directly or by subordinate authority, with few exceptions, all of the executive authority vested in the President are, in practice, exercised by the Prime Minister with the help of the Council of Ministers.
The President resides in an estate known as the Rashtrapati Bhavan (which roughly translates as President's House) situated in Raisina Hill in New Delhi. The presidential retreats are The Retreat in Chharabra, Shimla and Rashtrapati Nilayam (President's Place) in Hyderabad.
The 13th and current President is Pranab Mukherjee, who was elected on 22 July 2012, and sworn in on 25 July 2012. He is also the first Bengali to be elected as President.
The Election Commission of India held the first presidential elections of India on May 2, 1952. Dr. Rajendra Prasad won his first election with 507,400 votes over his nearest rival K. T. Shah who got 92,827 votes
The Election Commission of India held indirect 2nd presidential elections of India on May 6, 1957. Dr. Rajendra Prasad won his re-election with 459,698 votes over his rivals Chowdhry Hari Ram who got 2,672 votes and Nagendra Narayan Das who got 2,000 votes. Dr. Rajendra Prasad, has been the only person, to have won and served two terms, as President of India
The Election Commission of India held indirect 3rd presidential elections of India on May 7, 1962. Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan with 553,067 votes won the presidency over his rivals Chowdhry Hari Ram who got 6,341 votes and Yamuna Prasad Trisulia who got 3,537 votes.
The Election Commission of India held the indirect 4th presidential elections of India on May 6, 1967. Zakir Husain, with 471,244 votes, won the presidency over his rival Koka Subbarao, who garnered 363,971 votes.
The Election Commission of India held indirect 5th presidential elections of India on August 1969. Varahgiri Venkata Giri with 420,077 votes won in a runoff election over his rival Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy who got 405,427 votes.
The Election Commission of India held indirect 6th presidential elections of India on August 17, 1974. Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, from Assam with 765,587 votes won over his nearest rival Tridib Chaudhuri, from West Bengal who got 189,196 votes.
The Election Commission of India held indirect 7th presidential elections of India on August 6, 1977. Even though 37 candidates filed their nominations, 36 of them were rejected, leading to Neelam Sanjiva Reddy being the only President of India winning unopposed.
The Election Commission of India held indirect 8th presidential elections of India on July 1982. Zail Singh with 754,113 votes won over his nearest rival H.R. Khanna who got 282,685 votes. Zail Singh was the first Sikh to be President of India, and along with Manmohan Singh, were the only two Sikhs, to hold one of the highest national power in India.
The Election Commission of India held indirect 9th presidential elections of India on July 1987. R. Venkataraman with 740,148 votes won over his nearest rival V. R. Krishna Iyer who got 281,550 votes.
The Election Commission of India held indirect 10th presidential elections of India on 24 July 1992. Shankar Dayal Sharma with 675,864 votes won over his nearest rival G. G. Swell who got 346,485 votes.
Election Commission of India held the 11th presidential elections of India on 17 July 1997. K. R. Narayanan with 956,290 votes won over his nearest rival T. N. Seshan who got 50,631 votes. K.R. Narayanan was the first dalit to be President of India.
Indian presidential election, 2002 was held on 15 July 2002 to elect President of India. On 18 July 2002, the results were declared. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam became the 11th President by beating his nearest rival Lakshmi Sehgal.
The Election Commission of India held indirect 13th presidential elections of India on 19 July 2007. Pratibha Patil with 638,116 votes won over her nearest rival Bhairon Singh Shekhawat who got 331,306 votes. This result meant that Pratibha Patil became the first female.
The 14th indirect presidential election, in order to elect the 13th president, was held in India on 19 July 2012. The last date for filing nominations was 30 June, whereas the votes would be counted on 22 July. The two leading candidates for the presidency were former Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee from West Bengal and former Speaker of the Lok Sabha P. A. Sangma from Meghalaya.
A presidential election will be held in India before 25 July 2017, the day when incumbent President Pranab Mukherjee's term ends. Mukherjee is eligible for re-election as no term limit exists in India.
