Agencies
New Delhi, Jul 21: Indian lawmakers have selected the nation's first female president in a vote seen as a symbolic victory for women contending with widespread discrimination, election officials said Saturday.
Pratibha Patil, the 72-year-old candidate of the governing Congress party and its political allies, took nearly two-thirds of the vote for the largely ceremonial post.
She defeated incumbent Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, the candidate of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, in the vote by several thousand lawmakers and members of state legislatures.
Her candidacy was dogged by unprecedented mudslinging from the moment it was agreed upon by coalition members, marring the usually genteel process of presidential elections.
Analysts say Patil, who is largely unknown on the national stage, was selected for her unswerving devotion to Sonia Gandhi, leader of the Congress party, and Gandhi‘s powerful family, which has historically controlled the party.
The election of a woman continues an Indian tradition using the presidency to bolster disadvantaged communities.
While India has had several women in positions of power — most notably Indira Gandhi, who was elected prime minister in 1966, and her daughter-in-law, Sonia Gandhi, who currently heads the Congress party — many women still face rampant discrimination.
International groups estimate that some 10 million female fetuses have been aborted in the country over the last two decades.
The nomination of Patil surprised many, given her lack of national recognition despite more than four decades in politics. Opponents derided her nomination, saying she lacked the national stature for the job.
Patil was a lawyer before she joined politics and became a member of the state legislature in 1962. She was appointed a minister several times in the Maharashtra state government between 1962 and 1985. In the following decade, she served as a member of Indian Parliament.
She will replace Kalam who has ended his five-year term and following the custom did not seek a second term.
Patil got four additional votes in Tamil Nadu
PTI
Chennai: UPA's presidential nominee Pratibha Patil got an additional four votes in Tamil Nadu, indicating cross-voting in the July 19 election.
While the UPA constituents and Left parties have a strength of 167 in the 234-member House, Patil bagged 171 votes.
Her NDA-backed independent rival Bhairon Singh Shekhawat polled 59 votes while one vote was declared invalid.
Third Front constituents AIADMK and MDMK, who made a u-turn on the grouping's decision to abstain in the poll, voted in favour of Shekhawat.
Both these parties have a combined strength of 66 in the assembly.
AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa and two MDMK MLAs did not participate in the voting.
Actor-politician Vijyakant, who was wooed by the NDA, had declined to reveal whom he had voted for.
The value of each vote in Tamil Nadu is 176.
Resume of Pratibha Patil
Name: Pratibha Devisingh Patil
Date of birth: December 19, 1934
Place of birth: Nadgaon, Maharashtra
Father's name: Narayan Rao
Husband's name: Devisingh Ransingh Shekhawat
Education:
• Schooling at RR School, Jalgaon.
• MA from Mooljee Jaitha College, Jalgaon.
• Got a law degree from Government Law College, Mumbai.
Joined politics:
• In 1962, at age 27. She won an Assembly election from Edlabad on a Congress ticket.
Political party:
• Always with the Congress. Seen as a staunch Nehru-Gandhi loyalist.
Political mentor:
• Yashwantrao Chavan, a former Maharashtra Chief Minister.
Constituencies:
• Edlabad, Jalgaon assembly seats. Amravati Lok Sabha constituency.
Political journey:
• Elected to the Maharashtra Assembly in 1962, she became deputy minister for education after re-election in 1967.
• In her next term, 1972-78 she was a minister with portfolios like tourism, social welfare, and housing.
• In 1977, when the Congress split, she chose to remain with Indira Gandhi's party, unlike other Maharashtra leaders like Yashwantrao Chavan and Sharad Pawar who joined the splinter party Congress (Urs).
• In 1978 she became Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly when Congress (Urs) came to power. She was the frontrunner for the CM's post in 1980 when the Congress (I) came back to power, but A.R. Antulay was picked instead. She served as a minister again after Antulay resigned on corruption charges.
• Was a Rajya Sabha member in 1985-90 and served as Deputy Chairperson from 1986 to 1988.
• In 1988, Rajiv Gandhi chose her as the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee I president.
• In 1991, Patil contested the 10th Lok Sabha elections and was elected from Amravati, where the family is based. She completed her Lok Sabha term in 1996 and did not contest again.
• In 2004, she was brought out of hibernation to be made the Governor of Rajasthan.
Other roles:
• Her husband is an educator and she has been active in that sphere setting up the Vidya Bharati Shikshan Prasarak Mandal, which runs a chain of schools and colleges in Jalgaon and Mumbai. She also set up the Shram Sadhana Trust that runs hostels for working women in New Delhi and Mumbai and an engineering college for rural youth in Jalgaon. She has also helped run a school for children of the Vimukta Jamatis & Nomadic Tribes.
• She also founded and was the chairperson of a cooperative sugar factory known as Sant Muktabai Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana and a cooperative bank Pratibha Mahila Sahakari Bank.
Interesting facts:
• In 1962, she was crowned College Queen at Mooljee.
• In college, she was a table tennis champ.
• She has never lost an election.
• She managed Indira Gandhi's kitchen when Sanjay Gandhi died.
• In 1977, she was arrested for protesting against the arrest of Indira Gandhi and spent 10 days in jail.
• Her husband was once Mayor of Amravati, her Lok Sabha constituency.
• She was the first woman Governor of Rajasthan.
• She has asserted that she will not be a rubber stamp president.
• Her husband is a Shekhawat and though she does not use his last name, it made the Presidential battle Shekhawat vs Shekhawat.
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