President of India 2012 – Pranab Mukherjee wins the Presidential Race

UPA Presidential candidate and former Finance Minister of India Pranab Mukherjee was on Sunday elected as the 13th President of India succeeded Pratibha Devisingh Patil. Pranab got the magical votes of 7,13,187 to become the new 13th President of India. Mukherjee got the magic figure during the counting of votes of Maharashtra.

The 76 years old Mukherjee will take office as the 13th President of India on Wednesday, the 25th of July 2012. The Chief Justice of India Mr. S. H. Kapadia will administer the oath of office to the President-elect, who will take over from Pratibha Patil, at a ceremonial function at 11.30 am in the Central Hall of Parliament.

Soon after Mr. Mukherjee was declared president-elect, he said ”I would like to thank people of this great country for conferring this distinction by electing me to the high office. Now, they have entrusted me with the responsibility to protect, to defend and to preserve the Constitution as President of the Republic. I will try to justify, in a modest way as I can, to be trustworthy to the people.”

His rival P A Sangma, who was backed by BJP and some other opposition parties like AIADMK and BJD, could manage only 3,15,000 vote value.

About Pranab Mukherjee

Born on 11th December 1935, Pranab Mukherjee began his political career with the Indian National Congress in 1969 under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He became one of her top lieutenants and was often described as her “man for all seasons”. His rise was meteoric in the early phase of his career and he became a cabinet minister in Indira Gandhi’s government in 1973. Mukherjee rose through a series of cabinet posts to become the Finance Minister of India from 1982 to 1984. Mukherjee was Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha from 1980 to 1985.

Mukherjee formed his own political party, the Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress, but later merged it with Congress in 1989 after reaching a political compromise with Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Mukherjee served as the Minister of External Affairs (Foreign Minister) from 1995 to 1996 in Narasimha Rao cabinet. Mukherjee was the principal architect of Sonia Gandhi’s entry into Indian politics in the 1990s. He became the elder statesman of the Congress party during this period. Mukherjee was Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2012. He also served as the Minister of Defence from 2004 to 2006 and again served as the Minister of External Affairs from 2006 to 2009. He was the Finance Minister from 2009 to 2012 in the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Awards & Honors

Mukherjee has received several accolades and honors. In 1984, he was rated as the Best Finance Minister in the World according to a survey of Euromoney magazine. In 2010, he was awarded “Finance Minister of the Year for Asia” by Emerging Markets, the daily newspaper of record for the World Bank and the IMF. In December 2010, The Banker recognized him as the “Finance Minister of the Year.“ The government of India honored him with the Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award of India, in 2008.

Indiascanner.com congrats Mr. Mukherjee for becoming the next President of India…

Source : Wiki….