From Closest To Uncontested, 10 Facts On India’s Presidential Elections

Fourteen people have been elected as the President of India since India became a republic in 1950, with 12 of them completing their full term of five years. Rajendra Prasad, the inaugural President, is the only one so far to be re-elected to the position.

Two Presidents, Zakir Husain and Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, have died in office. Notably, both served less than three years in office. While Zakir Husain died on May 3, 1969, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed died on February 11, 1977.

At 12 years and 107 days, India’s first President, Rajendra Prasad, had the longest tenure. He was re-elected in the 1952 and 1957 elections by record margins. Prior to becoming the President, Prasad was the President of the Constituent Assembly.

In 1969, Chief Justice Mohammad Hidayatullah served as the Acting President for 35 days. After Zakir Husain’s death, Vice President VV Giri took over as the Acting President but resigned in less than three months to contest the Presidential election. Hidayatullah served as the Acting President until Giri became the President on August 24, 1969. Hidayatullah later served as Vice President between 1979 and 1984.

Neelam Sanjiva Reddy was elected as the President unopposed after the nomination papers of 36 other aspirants were rejected. Thus, no Presidential election was held in 1977. Interestingly, Reddy was the official Congress candidate in the 1969 election but narrowly lost to VV Giri.

S Radhakrishnan was the first Vice President to become the President in 1962. Zakir Husain and VV Giri – both Vice Presidents – became President in 1967 and 1969 respectively. R Venkataraman became the President in 1987 after serving as Vice President for three years. His successor, Shankar Dayal Sharma, too served as Vice President. Sharma’s Vice President KR Naryanan occupied the top post in 1997.

Zakir Husain became the President in 1967, after serving as the Vice President under S Radhakrishnan. However, he remained in office for little less than two years before dying in office. Husain’s Presidential tenure is the shortest in India’s history.

After Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed’s death in February 1977, Vice President BD Jatti took over as the Acting President for over five months. As Acting President, he administered the oath of office and secrecy to Prime Minister Morarji Desai and his Council of Ministers.

India’s most interesting Presidential election was fought in 1969, when the official Congress candidate Neelam Sanjiva Reddy lost to Independent VV Giri, who was tacitly backed by Indira Gandhi. Under the call for ‘conscience vote’, a minority of Congress lawmakers, Leftists and Communists helped Giri carry 11 of 17 state legislatures. Giri, however, secured just 48 per cent first-preference votes. The other official candidate was former Finance Minister CD Deshmukh, who secured a little over one lakh votes.

In the 1957 election, Rajendra Prasad secured 98.99 per cent votes – the highest ever. In the next election, S Radhakrishnan secured 98.25 per cent votes, a close second in terms of vote percentage. In recent history, KR Narayanan won nearly 95 per cent of votes after all major parties, barring Shiv Sena, backed him.