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Pranab elected the new President of India

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India’s president elect Pranab Mukherjee addresses media outside his residence after winning the election in New Delhi, Sunday, July 22. Former Finance Minister Mukherjee, the candidate from India’s governing Congress party, has claimed victory in the election for the country’s next president, a largely ceremonial position. (AP Photo)
 
New Delhi, July 22 (AGENCIES): Pranab Mukherjee was today elected the next President trouncing P A Sangma by a huge margin to embark on a new journey capping over four decades of active political innings. In a virtually one-side election that saw divisions in the opposition NDA, the 76-year-old UPA nominee Mukherjee secured a vote value of 7,13,763, garnering 69.3 per cent of the total 10,29,750 valid votes polled.

Rival P A Sangma, who was backed by BJP and some other opposition parties like AIADMK and BJD, trailed far behind with 3,15,987 vote value in the polling that saw heavy cross-voting against him by BJP MLAs in Karnataka in favour of Mukherjee.

“I declare that Shri Pranab Mukherjee has been duly elected to the office of President of India,” Returning Officer and Rajya Sabha Secretary General V K Agnihotri after more than seven-hours of counting that went on expected lines.

A veteran of politics and art of governance, Mukherjee brings a wealth of experience to the top Constitutional office having held various key positions in the party and government at the Centre. Troubleshooter for the UPA till recently, Mukherjee will be sworn-in as the 13th President on July 25. Congratulations poured from all over with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and senior Ministers making a beeline to his 13, Talkatora Road residence to greet him. Vice President Hamid Ansari called him to congratulate.

Sangma, a former Lok Sabha Speaker who split from his party NCP to contest the election, congratulated Mukherjee and wished him success. However, he alleged that the election was “exceptionally partisan” as the UPA lured states with “packages, inducements and threats.” The run up to the election was not without drama with key UPA allies Trinamool Congress and Samajwadi Party proposing the names of A P J Abdul Kalam, Manmohan Singh and Somnath Chatterjee, sending shock waves in the Congress.

But the whole situation changed after Samajwadi Party ditched Trinamool Congress and BSP joined the chorus of support to Mukherjee. Adding to this, BJP allies JD(U) and Shiv Sena broke ranks from NDA, setting the path of victory for the UPA nominee much before the polling on July 19.  BJP, which adopted Sangma whose name was propped up by AIADMK and BJD keeping in view the 2014 Lok Sabla polls, congratulated Mukherjee.  “Once he becomes the President, he is our President,” said BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad.
 
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Sangma congratulates Mukherjee, keeps election petition option open
New Delhi, July 22 (IANS): Congratulating Pranab Mukherjee for winning the presidential poll, opposition candidate Purno Sangma said the nation had lost an opportunity to elevate a tribal candidate to the post of the president. He also said that the option of approaching the Supreme Court against the election was open and they would decide on it Tuesday.
“I might have lost the election, but the nation as a whole has also lost a golden opportunity to demonstrate its solidarity with the tribals by elevating one of them to the highest office of the country,” Sangma said at a press conference after the result was announced.  “I do feel I have won hearts and minds of substantial sections of masses of the country represented by those who voted for me.
He also said that there should be a code of conduct for the presidential poll.  “There is a compelling need for establishing a code of conduct for the presidential election,” he said, adding that the process of election this year was “exceptionally political”. “Public perception is that in identification and projection of its candidate, the Congress has not genuinely built consensus. It persuaded desperate political parties commanding major sections of the major electoral college by economic and other packages as well as inducements, threats and promises,” Sangma alleged.
He also said that low votes to him from the northeastern states showed that the region was not taking its own decisions. “This is the aspect that worried me most that the people of northeast are no more capable of standing on their own feet. They are 100 percent dependent on central assistance and they are not able to go against the central government. Tribals have to wake up and think over it,” he said. 
 
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Purno Sangma gets fewer votes in Meghalaya; none in Nagaland, Kerala
New Delhi, July 22 (IANS): Opposition presidential candidate Purno Sangma got fewer votes than UPA candidate Pranab Mukherjee in his home state of Meghalaya and scored a duck in Nagaland and Kerala, officials said Sunday. In Meghalaya, where Sangma is a legislator, with the total votes standing at 59, Sangma managed to get 23. In comparison Mukherjee got 34 votes, while two votes were invalid. In Nagaland, where the total votes are 60, Mukherjee got 58 votes while two votes were invalid. In Kerala, which has 125 votes, Mukherjee got 124 votes with one vote being invalid. Sangma, who had appealed to tribal people, especially in the northeast to vote for him, failed to get any votes in Nagaland as well as Kerala. 
 
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Pranab thanks people for electing him
Pranab Mukherjee today thanked people for electing him as the President and assured the nation that he would make earnest efforts to preserve and protect the Constitution. “I would like to thank people of this great country for conferring this distinction by electing me to the high office,” he said after the election results came in. “Now they have entrusted me with the responsibility to protect, to defend and to preserve the Constitution as President of the Republic. I will try to justify, in a modest way as I can, to be trustworthy to the people”, he said. A visibly moved Mukherjee said he had received much more from the people, from the political establishment, from Parliament, from all sections of the people with whom he had come across in his five decades of public life. “I received much more than I have given them,” he said noting that he had the privilege of visiting almost all state capitals in the last one month.

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