LOC19:16
16:16 GMT
New Delhi, July 20 (KUNA) -- Indian election authorities announced on Thursday that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate 71-years-old Ram Nath Kovind was elected as the 14th President of the country.
Kovind won 65 percent of the votes in the presidential elections held on Tuesday.
Kovind, Governor of the backward Eastern Indian state of Bihar and nominated by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, thus defeated the opposition Congress party's 72-year-old Meira Kumar, few days before the term of current President Pranab Mukherjee expires on July 24.
Members of the Electoral College consisting of Parliamentarians in both the Upper and Lower Houses of Indian Parliament and members of legislative assemblies in all the states cast their votes on Monday.
Presidential Elections Returning Officer Anoop Mishra said that Kovind bagged 2930 votes with a value of 702044 to be the second Dalit to occupy the ceremonial constitutional position while his opponent and Opposition party candidate Kumar received 1844 votes with a value of 367314.
The total number of voters are 4896 comprising 776 MPs and 4120 Members of Legislative Assemblies of all the states.
Election of a vice president is scheduled to be held on August 5 with Venkaiah Naidu as the ruling NDA's candidate while Congress party led opposition fielded former West Bengal governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi. (end)
atk.msa