SANTOSH 9702: List of presidents of India

The president of India is the head of state of India and the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. The president is referred to as the first citizen of India. Although vested with these powers by the Constitution of India, the position is largely a ceremonial one and executive powers are de facto exercised by the prime minister.

The president is elected by the Electoral College composed of elected members of the parliament houses, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, and also members of the Vidhan Sabha, the state legislative assemblies. Presidents may remain in office for a tenure of five years, as stated by article 56, part V, of the Constitution of India. In the case where a president's term of office is terminated early or during the absence of the president, the vice president assumes office. By article 70 of part V, the parliament may decide how to discharge the functions of the president where this is not possible, or in any other unexpected contingency.

Representation of Presidents by party of candidacy

Independent (29.6%)

Indian National Congress (41.2%)

Bharatiya Janata Party (5.8%)

Janata Party (5.8%)

Acting (17.6%)

There have been 14 presidents of India since the post was established when India was declared as a republic with the adoption of the Indian constitution in 1950. Apart from these fourteen, three acting presidents have also been in office for short periods of time. Varahagiri Venkata Giri became the acting president in 1969 after Zakir Husain, died in office. Giri was elected president a few months later. He remains the only person to have held office both as a president and acting president. Rajendra Prasad, the first president of India, is the only person to have held office for two terms.

Presidents by state of birth^[7]

Seven presidents have been members of a political party before being elected. Six of these were active party members of the Indian National Congress. The Janata Party has had one member, Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, who later became president. Two presidents, Zakir Husain and Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, have died in office. Their vice presidents served as acting presidents until a new president was elected. Following Zakir Husain's death, two acting presidents held office until the new president, V. V. Giri, was elected. When Giri resigned to take part in the presidential elections, he was succeeded by Mohammad Hidayatullah as acting president. The 12th president, Pratibha Patil, is the first woman to hold the office, elected in 2007.

On 25 July 2017, Ram Nath Kovind took office as the 14th president of India.

Presidents

This list is numbered based on presidents elected after winning an Indian presidential election. The terms of Varahagiri Venkata Giri, Mohammad Hidayatullah, and Basappa Danappa Jatti, who served as acting president, are therefore not numbered or counted as actual terms in office. The president of India does not represent any political party. The colours used in the table indicate the following:

Acting President of India (3)

President was an Independent candidate (5)

President was a candidate of Indian National Congress (INC) (7)

President was a candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) (1)

President was a candidate of the Janata Party (JP) (1)

№	Name (birth–death)	Elected	Vote share	Took office	Left office	Term	Previous post	Vice president		Appointed by (Chief Justice of India)	Notes
1	Rajendra Prasad (1884–1963)	1950	Elected unanimously by the Constituent Assembly	26 January 1950	13 May 1952	12 years, 107 days	President of the Constituent Assembly	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan	Indian National Congress	Constituent Assembly of India	Prasad, from Bihar, was the first president of independent India and also the longest-serving president, as the only president to serve two or more terms in office. He was also a freedom fighter during theIndian independence movement.
		1952	83.8%	13 May 1952	13 May 1957					M. Patanjali Sastri
		1957	98.9%	13 May 1957	13 May 1962					Sudhi Ranjan Das
2	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888–1975)	1962	98.2%	13 May 1962	13 May 1967	5 years, 0 days	Vice President	Zakir Husain	Independent	Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Sinha	Radhakrishnan was a prominent philosopher and writer and also held the position of vice-chancellor of the Andhra Universityand Banaras Hindu University. He received the Bharat Ratna award in 1954 before becoming the President. He was the first president from South India.
3	Zakir Husain (1897–1969)	1967	56.2%	13 May 1967	3 May 1969	1 year, 355 days	Vice President	Varahagiri Venkata Giri	Independent	Kailas Nath Wanchoo	Husain was vice-chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University and a recipient of Padma Vibhushan and Bharat Ratna. He died in office, the first to do so. He was also the shortest-serving President. He was also the first Muslim President.
–	Varahagiri Venkata Giri^* (1894–1980)	–	–	3 May 1969	20 July 1969	78 days	Vice President	–	–	–	He was elected Vice President of India in 1967. Following the death of President Zakir Husain, Giri was appointed as Acting President. He resigned after a few months to take part in the presidential elections.
–	Mohammad Hidayatullah^* (1905–1992)	–	–	20 July 1969	24 August 1969	35 days	Chief Justice	–	–	–	Hidayatullah served as the Chief Justice of India and was also a recipient of the Order of the British Empire. He served as Acting President until the election of Giri as the President of India.
4	Varahagiri Venkata Giri (1894–1980)	1969	50.8%	24 August 1969	24 August 1974	5 years, 0 days	Acting President	Gopal Swarup Pathak	Independent	Mohammad Hidayatullah	Giri was the first person to have served as both an acting president and president of India. He was a recipient of the Bharat Ratna, and served as Labour and Employment Minister and High Commissioner to Ceylon (Sri Lanka).
5	Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (1905–1977)	1974	79.9%	24 August 1974	11 February 1977	2 years, 171 days	Food and Agriculture Minister	Gopal Swarup Pathak (1974) Basappa Danappa Jatti(1974–1977)	Indian National Congress	A. N. Ray	Ahmed served as a Minister before being elected as president. He died in 1977 before his term of office ended, and was the second Indian president to die in office. He was also president during Emergency.
–	Basappa Danappa Jatti^* (1912–2002)	–	–	11 February 1977	25 July 1977	164 days	Vice President	–	–	–	Jatti was the vice president of India during Ahmed's term of office, and was sworn in as Acting President upon Ahmed's death. He earlier served as the Chief Minister for the State of Mysore State.
6	Neelam Sanjiva Reddy (1913–1996)	1977	elected unopposed	25 July 1977	25 July 1982	5 years, 0 days	Speaker of the Lok Sabha	Basappa Danappa Jatti (1977–1979) Mohammad Hidayatullah (1979–1982)	Janata Party	Mirza Hameedullah Beg	Reddy was the first Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. Reddy was the only Member of Parliament from the Janata Party to get elected from Andhra Pradesh. He was unanimously elected Speaker of the Lok Sabha on 26 March 1977 and relinquished this office on 13 July 1977 to become the 6th President of India.
7	Zail Singh (1916–1994)	1982	72.7%	25 July 1982	25 July 1987	5 years, 0 days	Home Minister	Mohammad Hidayatullah(1982–1984) Ramaswamy Venkataraman(1984–1987)	Indian National Congress	Y. V. Chandrachud	In March 1972, Singh assumed the position of Chief Minister of Punjab, and in 1980, he became Union Home Minister. He was also secretary general to Non-Aligned Movement(NAM) from 1983 to 1986
8	Ramaswamy Venkataraman (1910–2009)	1987	72.2%	25 July 1987	25 July 1992	5 years, 0 days	Vice President	Shankar Dayal Sharma	Indian National Congress	Raghunandan Swarup Pathak	In 1942, Venkataraman was jailed by the British for his involvement in the Indian independence movement.After his release, he was elected to independent India’s Provisional Parliament as a member of the Congress Party in 1950 and eventually joined the central government, where he first served as Minister of Finance and Industry and later as Minister of Defence.
9	Shankar Dayal Sharma (1918–1999)	1992	65.8%	25 July 1992	25 July 1997	5 years, 0 days	Vice President	Kocheril Raman Narayanan	Indian National Congress	Madhukar Hiralal Kania	Sharma was Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, and the Indian Minister for Communications. He also served as the Governor of Andhra Pradesh,Punjab and Maharashtra.
10	Kocheril Raman Narayanan (1921–2005)	1997	92.8%	25 July 1997	25 July 2002	5 years, 0 days	Vice President	Krishan Kant	Independent	J. S. Verma	Narayanan served as India's ambassador to Thailand, Turkey, China and United States of America. He received doctorates in Science and Law and was also a chancellor in several universities. He was also the vice-chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University. He was the first Dalit President.
11	Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (1931–2015)	2002	89.5%	25 July 2002	25 July 2007	5 years, 0 days	Chief Scientific Advisor of Prime Minister	Krishan Kant(2002) Bhairon Singh Shekhawat(2002–2007)	Independent	Bhupinder Nath Kirpal	Kalam was an educator and engineer who played a leading role in the development of India's ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs. He also received theBharat Ratna. He was popularly known as "People's President".
12	Pratibha Patil (1934–)	2007	65.8%	25 July 2007	25 July 2012	5 years, 0 days	Governor of Rajasthan	Mohammad Hamid Ansari	Indian National Congress	K. G. Balakrishnan	Patil was the first woman to become the President of India. She was also the first female governor of Rajasthan.
13	Pranab Mukherjee (1935–)	2012	69.3%	25 July 2012	25 July 2017	5 years, 0 days	Finance Minister	Mohammad Hamid Ansari	Indian National Congress	S. H. Kapadia	Mukherjee held various posts in the cabinet ministry for the Government of India such as Finance Minister,Foreign Minister,Defence Minister and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission.
14	Ram Nath Kovind (1945–)	2017	65.6%	25 July 2017	Incumbent (Term ends on 25 July 2022)	1 year, 335 days	Governor of Bihar	Venkaiah Naidu	Bharatiya Janata Party	Jagdish Singh Khehar	Kovind wasgovernor of Bihar from 2015 to 2017 and a Member of Parliament from 1994 to 2006. He is the second Dalit president (after K. R. Narayanan) and is the first president from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and is an active member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) since his youth.