National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) candidate Ram Nath Kovind has been declared as the 14th President of India after winning the election by a margin of 3,34,730 votes, with the Opposition’s nominee Meira Kumar having been limited to 3,67,314 votes.

The presidential election on July 17 saw close to 100 percent polling. A total of 771 members of Parliament and 4,109 legislators were eligible to cast votes.

A lawyer by profession, Kovind has been the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) Scheduled Caste Morcha chief (1998-2002) and the President of the All-India Koli Samaj. He also served as the national spokesperson of the party. The saffron party had even tired to project him as an alternative to Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh.

Kovind was appointed as the Governor of Bihar on August 8, 2015. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh during the two terms of 1994-2000 and 2000-2006.

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