In news– Droupadi Murmu has recently taken oath as the 15th President of India.
Murmu marks many firsts:
- Droupadi Murmu is the first President of the country who was born in Independent India.
- The 64-year-old became the youngest leader to take oath as India’s President.
- She is also the first tribal leader to be elected to the highest constitutional post of the country.
- She is the second woman to assume the nation’s top office( after Pratibha Devisingh Patil-12th president of India).
- Murmu is the first girl from her village to attend college. The President hails from Uparbeda village of Mayurbhanj district in Odisha.
- In 2015, Murmu became the first woman governor of Jharkhand.
Some of the facts on Presidents of India-
- There have been 15 presidents of India since the post was established when India was declared as a republic with the adoption of the Indian constitution in 1950.
- Rajendra Prasad was the first president of India. He served in office for a span of 12 years from 1950 to 1962.
- Rajendra Prasad, the first president of India, is the only person to have held office for two terms.
- In the first presidential election in 1952, which Rajendra Prasad won, there were five contesting candidates with the last one getting only 533 votes.
- India’s seventh president Neelam Sanjiva Reddy was the only one to be elected unopposed to the post in the history of independent India.
- Apart from these 15, three acting presidents have also been in office for short periods of time. They were Varahagiri Venkata Giri, Mohammad Hidayatullah, B. D. Jatti.
- V V Giri became the acting president in 1969 after Zakir Husain died in office.
- When Giri resigned to take part in the presidential elections, he was succeeded by Mohammad Hidayatullah as acting president.
- Giri was elected president a few months later. He remains the only person to have held office both as a president and acting president.
- 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.
- The 12th president, Pratibha Patil, is the first woman to hold the office, elected in 2007.
| SL NO. | Name of the President | Term of Office |
| 1 | Rajendra Prasad | 26 January 1950 – 13 May 1962 |
| 2 | Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan | 13 May 1962 – 13 May 1967 |
| 3 | Zakir Hussain | 13 May 1967 – 3 May 1969 |
| – | VV Giri (Acting President) | 3 May 1969 – 20 July 1969 |
| – | Mohammad Hidayatullah (Acting President) | 20 July 1969 to 24 August 1969 |
| 4 | V.V Giri | 24 August 1969 – 24 August 1974 |
| 5 | Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed | 24 August 1974 – 11 February 1977 |
| – | Basappa Danappa Jatti (Acting President) | 11 February 1977 – 25 July 1977 |
| 6 | Neelam Sanjiva Reddy | 25 July 1977 – 25 July 1982 |
| 7 | Giani Zail Singh | 25 July 1982 – 25 July 1987 |
| 8 | R Venkataraman | 25 July 1987 – 25 July 1992 |
| 9 | Shankar Dayal Sharma | 25 July 1992 – 25 July 1997 |
| 10 | K R Narayanan | 25 July 1997 – 25 July 2002 |
| 11 | APJ Abdul Kalam | 25 July 2002 – 25 July 2007 |
| 12 | Pratibha Patil | 25 July 2007 – 25 July 2012 |
| 13 | Pranab Mukherjee | 25 July – 25 July 2017 |
| 14 | Ram Nath Kovind | 25 July 2017 – 21 July 2022 |
| 15 | Draupadi Murmu | 21 July 2022-Incumbent |
Office of the President of India-
- The president of India is the head of state of India and the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces. The president is referred to as the first citizen of India.
- Article 52 of the Indian Constitution states that there shall be a President of India and as per Article 53, all the executive powers of the Union shall be executed by him or her either directly or through officers subordinates to him.
- 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.
Source: Times of India
