K R Narayanan is India's new President
Kocheril Raman Narayanan was elected India's tenth
President on Thursday, polling a record 956,290 votes.
His lone rival, former chief election commissioner T N Seshan,
secured 50,631 votes, forfeiting his security deposit.
Seshan, who was supported by the Shiv Sena and some
Independent legislators, drew a blank in six states and the Union
territory of Pondicherry.
Returning officer S Gopalan told newsmen after the counting that
Narayanan received the highest number of valid votes polled in any Presidential election in terms of value.
While Narayanan polled the votes of 4,231 members of the
electoral college comprising members of Parliament and the
state legislative assemblies, Seshan secured the votes of 240
legislators. The electoral college consisted of 4,848 members;
171 votes were declared invalid.
Narayan's election to the highest office in the country
was expected as he was backed by the major political parties -- the
the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, all the constituents of the
United Front, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Shiromani Akali Dal.
Although Seshan failed to secure a single vote in his home state Kerala, Arunachal
Pradesh, Nagaland, Pondicherry, Sikkim and Tripura, 26 members of
the Lok Sabha cast their votes in his favour. The Sena has 15 members in the Lok Sabha.
The counting of votes was taken up at 11 am in room number 63 of Parliament house. There was a total of 28 ballot boxes. The ballot box of the Parliament polling
centre was first opened to separate the votes of the 13
legislators who were permitted to cast votes. The ballot boxes of
the 25 states and Union territories of Delhi and Pondicherry
were taken up for counting in alphabetical order. The votes of the
MPs were counted after the counting of votes at the 27 centres.
This was the first Presidential election for which no
campaign was launched by any political party. Nor was any
'whip' issued by any party to vote in favour of a particular candidate.
The Presidential election was held as President Shankar Dayal Sharma's term expires on July 24. Narayanan is expected to assume his new assignment the next day.
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