The United Progressive Alliance's candidate Pranab Mukherjee is all set to win the Presidential Election for which the counting of votes began this morning. Mr Mukherjee bagged a vote value of over 5 lakh 70 thousand when the reports last came in. His rival Mr PA Sangma managed to get a vote value of about 2 lakh 65 thousand.
Earlier, briefing the media after the counting of MPs' votes, the returning officer and Secretary General of Rajya Sabha V K Agnihotri said that Mr Mukherjee got the support of 527 of the 748 MPs. 206 MPs polled for his rival candidate and the Former Lok Sabha speaker P A Sangma. Fifteen votes were declared invalid.
The electoral college also consists of 4120 MLAs in the states. So far counting of votes of MLAs of Andhra Pradesh, Arunanchal Pradesh, Assam , Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat , Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand was over when report last came in. AIR correspondent reports that the results are likely to be declared this evening. The new President will be administered the oath of office by the Chief Justice of Inida on Wednesday at the historic Central Hall of Parliament.
Born on 11 th December 1935 at Mirati village in West Bengal, Mr Pranab Mukherjee holds a Master of Arts degree in History and Political Science and also a degree in law from the University of Calcutta. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by the University of Wolverhampton in 2011.
Mr Mukherjee began his career as an Upper Division clerk in the Office of the Deputy Accountant General in Post and Telegraph department at Kolkatta before he became a college teacher and later a journalist.
He began his political career with the Indian National Congress in 1969 under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi before becoming a cabinet minister in her government in 1973. During his over 43 years of political career, Mr Mukherjee held several cabinet portfolios including commerce, Finance and External Affairs. He was also the Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha.
Mr Mukherjee has several accolades and honors to his credit. 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. He was also honoured with Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award in 2008.
