The list of past Presidents

THE RACE HAS BEGUN: India will soon have its 13th President.

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Keywords: A P J Abdul Kalam, Rashtrapati Bhavan

The President of India is the first citizen of the country and the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. Though the President is largely a ceremonial head with the real power resting with the Union Cabinet headed by a Prime Minister, the position carries with it a lot of perks and prestige.

According to the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Act, 1952, no person shall be eligible for election as President unless he is a citizen of India and he has completed the age of 35 years. He should also be qualified for "election as a member of the House of the People".

As per the Constitution, a person shall not be eligible for election as President if he holds any office of profit under the Government of India or the Government of any State or under any local or other authority subject to the control of any of the state governments.

	First Presidential election (1952)
		Candidates	Votes polled
	1.	Dr Rajendra Prasad	5,07,400
	2.	Shri KT Shah	92,827
	3.	Shri Thatte Lakshman Ganesh	2,672
	4.	Shri Hari Ram	1,954
	5.	Shri Krishna Kumar Chatterjee	533
	Total		6,05,386
	Second Presidential election (1957)
		Candidate	Votes Polled
	1.	Dr Rajendra Prasad	4,59,698
	2.	Shri Nagendra Narayan Das	2,000
	3.	Chowdhry Hari Ram	2,672
	Total		4,64,370
	Third Presidential election (1962)
		Candidates	Votes Polled
	1.	Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan	5,53,067
	2.	Chowdhry Hari Ram	6,341
	3.	Shri Yamuna Prasad Trisulia	3,537
		Total	5,62,945
	Fourth Presidential election (1967)
		Candidate	Votes Polled
	1.	Dr Zakir Hussain	4,71,244
	2.	Shri Kota Subbarao	3,63,971
	3.	Shri Khubi Ram	1,369
	4.	Shri Yamuna Prasad Trisulia	750
	5.	Shri Bhamburkar Shriniwas Gopal	232
	6.	Shri Brahma Deo	232
	7.	Shri Krishna Kumar Chatterjee	125
	8.	Shri Kumar Kamla Singh	125
	9.	Shri Chandradutt Senani	0
	10.	Shri UP Chugani	0
	11.	Dr MC Davar	0
	12.	Ch Hari Ram	0
	13.	Dr Man Singh	0
	14.	Smt Manohara Holkar	0
	15.	Shri Motilal Bhikabhai Patel	0
	16.	Sh. Seetharamaiah Ramaswamy Sharma Hoysala	0
	17.	Shri Satyabhakt	0
		Total	8,38,048
	Fifth Presidential election (1969)
	1.	Shri VV Giri	4,01,515
	2.	Shri Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy	3,13,548
	3.	Shri CD Deshmukh	1,12,769
	4.	Shri Chandradatt Senani	5,814
	5.	Smt Furcharan Kaur	940
	6.	Shri Rajabhoj Pandurang Nathuji	831
	7.	Pandit Babu Lal Mag	576
	8.	Ch Hari Ram	125
	9.	Shri Sharma Manovihari Anirudh	125
	10.	Shri Khubi Ram	94
	11.	Shri Bhagmal	0
	12.	Shri Krishna Kumar Chatterjee	0
	13.	Shri Santosh Kumar Kachhwaha	0
	14.	Doctor Ramdular Tripathi Chakor	0
	15.	Shri Ramanlal Purushottam Vyas	0
		Total	8,36,337
	The quota fixed for election was 4,18,169 votes. As no candidate secured the required quota in the first count as above, candidate after candidate was excluded till only two candidates, namely, Shri VV Giri (with 4,20,077 votes) and Shri N Sanjeeva Reddy (with 4,05,427 votes) remained in the field. Shri VV Giri who secured the quota was declared elected by the Returning Officer on 20.08.1969 and the newly elected President assumed office on 24-08-1969.
	Sixth Presidential election (1974)
		Candidates	Votes Polled
	1.	Shri Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed	7,65,587
	2.	Shri Tridib Chaudhuri	1,89,196
		Total	9,54,783
	Seventh Presidential election (1977) 21.07.1977 - Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy won unopposed, 36 nominations rejected
	Eighth Presidential election (1982)
		Candidates	Votes Polled
	1.	Gyani Zail Singh	7,54,113
	2.	Shri HR Khanna	2,82,685
		Total	10,36,798
	Ninth Presidential election (1987)
		Candidates	Votes Polled
	1.	Shri R Venkataraman	7,40,148
	2.	Shri V Krishna Iyer	2,81,550
	3.	Shri Mithilesh Kumar	2,223
		Total	10,23,921
	10th Presidential election (1992)
		Candidates	Votes Polled
	1.	Dr Shanker Dayal Sharma	6,75,804
	2.	Shri GG Swell	3,46,485
	3.	Shri Ram Jethmalani	2,704
	4.	Kaka Joginder Singh alias Dharti Pakad	1,135
		Total	10,26,188
	11th Presidential election (1997)
		Candidates	Votes Polled
	1.	Shri KR Narayanan	9,56,290
	2.	Shri TN Seshan	50,631
		Total	10,06,921
	12th Presidential election (2002)
		Candidates	Votes Polled
	1.	Dr APJ Abdul Kalam	9,22,884
	2.	Smt Lakshmi Sahgal	1,07,366
		Total	10,30,250