Oye! News from India

Pranab Mukharjee as the 14th President of India

Category: India Published on Sunday, 22 July 2012 12:43 Written by Shruti Chopra

Today, Pranab Mukherjee was chosen as the 14th President of India. In a nearly one-side election that saw divisions in the opposition NDA, the 76-year-old UPA nominee held a vote value of 7,13,763, garnering 69.3 per cent of the total 10,29,750 valid votes polled. President-elect Pranab Mukherjee expressed his gratitude to the people for his election to India's highest office and said it would be his duty to guard and protect the Constitution. 

He told reporters, "I have deep gratitude and appreciation for the people of this great country for conferring this distinction of electing me to the high office." He added, "It would now be my responsibility to defend and protect the Constitution as President. I would try to justify in modest way to be trustworthy of my people."

He said, however, he had polled over 7 lakh votes; the end result was still awaited and would be declared by the returning officer. As said by Mukherjee, he visited all the state capitals but interacted only with the legislators during the last one month of campaigning for the presidential election. He said on his visits he could even feel the overwhelming support and affection of common people. "The overwhelming support and affection of ordinary people which I felt during the tour was really remarkable," he said. 

Mukharjee also added, "I received much more than I gave them." He thanked all the political parties, all the sections of society and parliamentarians for the support during his more than four decades of public life. He respected the congratulations from his rival PA Sangma.

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