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The President of India is the head of state and first citizen of India. The President is also the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces of India. Although the president is vested such powers by the constitution of India, the position is largely a ceremonial role and the executive powers are de facto exercised by the Cabinet Ministers and Prime Minister. The post of President is known in Hindi as Rashtrapati, a Sanskrit neologism meaning "lord of the realm". The President is elected by an electoral college composed of elected members of the parliament houses, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, and also members of the Vidhan Sabha, the state legislative assemblies.

There have been 13 Presidents of India since the introduction of the post in 1950. The post was established when India was declared as a republic with the adoption of the Indian constitution. Apart from these twelve, three acting presidents have also been in office for short periods of time. Varahagiri Venkata Giri became Acting President of India in 1969 following the death of Zakir Hussain, who 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. The President 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. Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India, is the only person to have held office for two terms.

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 Hussain and Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, have died in office. Their vice-presidents functioned as acting president until a new president was elected. Following Hussain's death, two acting presidents held office until the new president, Varahagiri Venkata Giri, was elected. Varahagiri Venkata Giri himself, Hussain's vice president, was the first acting president. When Giri resigned to take part in the presidential elections, he was superseded by Muhammad Hidayatullah as acting president. The current President is Pranab Mukherjee elected on 25 July 2012. 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. He originally comes from West Bengal and is also the first Bengali to hold the post of the President. The ex- president, Pratibha Patil, who was in office till 25 July 2012, was elected as the 12th President of India in 2007. She is also the first woman to serve as President of India.

Presidents

This list is numbered based on Presidents elected after winning an Indian Presidential election. The terms of Varahagiri Venkata Giri, Muhammad Hidayatullah, and Basappa Danappa Jatti, who have functioned as acting presidents, are therefore not numbered. The President of India does not represent any political party. The colours used in the table indicate the following:

• The symbol (*) with a light brown background indicates an Acting President of India.

#	Name	Portrait	Took office	Left office	Vice President	Notes
1	Rajendra Prasad (1884–1963)	File:Rajendra Prasad portrait.jpg	26 January 1950	13 May 1962	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan	1952 election page & 1957 election page Prasad was the first President of independent India from Bihar. He was also an independence activist of the Indian Independence Movement. Prasad was the only president to serve for two terms in office.
2	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888–1975)		13 May 1962	13 May 1967	Zakir Hussain	1962 election page Radhakrishnan was a prominent philosopher, writer, a Knight of the Realm and also held the position of vice chancellor of the Andhra University and Banaras Hindu University. He was also made a Knight of the Golden Army of Angels by Pope Paul VI.
3	Zakir Hussain (1897–1969)	File:Dr Zakir Hussain.jpg	13 May 1967	3 May 1969	Varahagiri Venkata Giri	1967 election page Hussain was vice chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University and a recipient of Padma Vibhushan and Bharat Ratna. He died before his term of office was ended.
	Varahagiri Venkata Giri * (1894–1980)	File:Varahagiri Venkata Giri.jpg	3 May 1969	20 July 1969		Giri was appointed as Acting President of India following the death of Hussain. He resigned in a few months to take part in the presidential elections.
	Muhammad Hidayatullah * (1905–1992)	File:Muhammad Hidayatullah.jpg	20 July 1969	24 August 1969		Hidayatullah served as the Chief Justice of India, and was a recipient of the Order of the British Empire. He served as Acting President of India until the election of Giri as the President of India.
4	Varahagiri Venkata Giri (1894–1980)	File:Varahagiri Venkata Giri.jpg	24 August 1969	24 August 1974	Gopal Swarup Pathak	1969 election page Giri is the only person to have served as both an acting president and president of India. He was a recipient of the Bharat Ratna, and has functioned as Indian Minister of Labour and High Commissioner to Ceylon (Sri Lanka).
5	Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (1905–1977)	File:Dr fakhruddin ali ahmed.jpg	24 August 1974	11 February 1977	Basappa Danappa Jatti	1974 election page Fakhruddin Ali 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 have died during a term of office.
	Basappa Danappa Jatti * (1912–2002)	File:Basappa Danappa Jatti.jpg	11 February 1977	25 July 1977		Jatti was the vice president of India during Ahmed's term of office, and was sworn in as Acting President of India upon Ahmed's death. He earlier functioned as the Chief Minister for the State of Mysore.
6	Neelam Sanjiva Reddy (1913–1996)		25 July 1977	25 July 1982	Muhammad Hidayatullah	1977 election page N.S.Reddy was the first Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh State. 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	Giani Zail Singh (1916–1994)	File:Giani Zail Singh1.jpg	25 July 1982	25 July 1987	Ramaswamy Venkataraman	1982 election page In March 1972, Singh assumed the position of chief Minister of Punjab, and in 1980, he became Union Home Minister.
8	Ramaswamy Venkataraman (1910–2009)		25 July 1987	25 July 1992	Shankar Dayal Sharma	1987 election page In 1942, Venkataraman was jailed by the British for his involvement in the India's 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)		25 July 1992	25 July 1997	Kocheril Raman Narayanan	1992 election page Sharma was Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, and the Indian Minister for Communications. He has also served as the governor of Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Maharashtra.
10	Kocheril Raman Narayanan (1920–2005)		25 July 1997	25 July 2002	Krishan Kant	1997 election page 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.
11	A. P. J. Abdul Kalam (1931– )	File:AbdulKalam.JPG	25 July 2002	25 July 2007	Bhairon Singh Shekhawat	2002 election page Kalam, is a scientist who played a leading role in the development of India's ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs. He also received the Bharat Ratna. Kalam was affectionately known as the People's President.
12	Pratibha Patil (1934– )		25 July 2007	25 July 2012	Mohammad Hamid Ansari	2007 election page Patil is the first woman to become the President of India. She was also the first female Governor of Rajasthan.
13	Pranab Mukherjee (1935– )		25 July 2012	Incumbent	Mohammad Hamid Ansari	2012 election page 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.He is from West Bengal and the first Bengali President of the country.

See also

• Acting President of India
• Vice President of India
• List of Vice-Presidents of India
• List of Indian Presidents by college education
• List of Presidents of India by longevity
• List of Presidents of India by longevity

References

General

• "Former Presidents". President’s Secretariat. Retrieved 29 November 2008.
• "List of Presidents/Vice Presidents". Election Commission of India. Retrieved 29 November 2008.

Specific

1. ^ "The Constitution of India" (.doc). Ministry of Law and Justice of India. Retrieved 4 January 2009.
2. "India gets first woman president since independence". BBC News. 25 July 2007. Retrieved 30 November 2008.
3. "1950: India becomes a republic". BBC News. 26 January 1950. Retrieved 6 January 2009.
4. ^ Harish Khare (6 December 2006). "Selecting the next Rashtrapati". The Hindu. India. Retrieved 30 November 2008.
5. ^ Shekhar Iyer (25 June 2007). "Shekhawat will not resign to contest poll". Hindustan Times. India. Retrieved 4 January 2009.
6. http://zeenews.india.com/news/exclusive/pranab-mukherjee-–-the-13th-president-of-india_789045.html
7. "First female president for India". BBC News. 21 July 2007. Retrieved 4 December 2008.
8. "Dr. Rajendra Prasad". The Hindu. India. 7 May 1952. Retrieved 30 November 2008.
9. "Republic Day". Time. 6 February 1950. Retrieved 30 November 2008.
10. "Rajendra Prasad's birth anniversary celebrated". The Hindu. India. 10 December 2006. Retrieved 30 November 2008.
11. Ramachandra Guha (15 April 2006). "Why Amartya Sen should become the next president of India". The Telegraph. Retrieved 30 November 2008.
12. "Dr S. Radhakrishnan". The Sunday Tribune. 30 January 2000. Retrieved 30 November 2008.
13. "Zakir Husain, Dr". Vice President's Secretariat. Retrieved 30 November 2008.
14. "Shekhawat need not compare himself to Giri: Shashi Bhushan". The Hindu. India. 12 July 2007. Retrieved 30 November 2008.
15. "Hidayatullah, Shri M". Vice President's Secretariat. Retrieved 30 November 2008.
16. "Giri, Shri Varahagiri Venkata". Vice President's Secretariat. Retrieved 30 November 2008.
17. ^ "Gallery of Indian Presidents". Press Information Bureau of the Government of India. Retrieved 30 November 2008.
18. "Jatti, Shri Basappa Danappa". Vice President's Secretariat. Retrieved 30 November 2008.
19. Bhargava, G.S. "Making of the Prez – Congress chief selects PM as well as President". The Tribune. India. Retrieved 6 January 2009.
20. Wolpert, Stanley A. (1999). India. University of California Press. p. 217. Retrieved 3 January 2009.
21. Hazarika, Sanjoy (17 July 1987). "Man In The News; India's Mild New President: Ramaswamy Venkataraman". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 January 2009.
22. "Venkataraman, Shri R." Vice President's Secretariat. Retrieved 6 January 2009.
23. Navtej Sarna (27 December 1999). "Former President Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma passes away". Embassy of India, Washington D.C. Retrieved 6 December 2008.
24. "Narayanan, Shri K, R". Vice President's Secretariat. Retrieved 6 December 2008.
25. "The BJP's aim was to get rid of me". Confederation of Human Rights Organizations. Retrieved 6 January 2009.
26. Ramana, M. V. (2002). Prisoners of the Nuclear Dream. New Delhi: Orient Longman. p. 169. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
27. Tyagi, Kavita; Misra, Padma. Basic Technical Communication. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. p. 124. ISBN 978-81-203-4238-5. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
28. "'Kalam was real people's President'". Hindustan Times. Indo-Asian News Service. 24 July 2007. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
29. Perappadan, Bindu Shajan (14 April 2007). "The people's President does it again". The Hindu. Chennai, India. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
30. Emily Wax (22 July 2007). "Female President Elected in India". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2 December 2008.
31. "Pratibha Patil is Rajasthan's first woman governor". Express India. 8 November 2008. Retrieved 6 December 2008.
32. http://zeenews.india.com/news/exclusive/pranab-mukherjee-–-the-13th-president-of-india_789045.html

External links

• Official website of the President of India
• Rediff.com – Presidents of India
• The Hindu – A presidential poll in the coalition age
• Zee News: Former Presidents

Template:Lists of Presidents of India

v t e Presidents of India
List
Presidents	Rajendra Prasad Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Zakir Husain V. V. Giri Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Neelam Sanjiva Reddy Zail Singh Ramaswamy Venkataraman Shankar Dayal Sharma K. R. Narayanan A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Presidency Pratibha Patil Presidency Pranab Mukherjee Presidency Ram Nath Kovind Presidency Droupadi Murmu (incumbent) Presidency
Acting	V. V. Giri Mohammad Hidayatullah B. D. Jatti
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