India Gets First Female President
New Delhi: 
UPA-Left candidate Pratibha Patil won the presidential election to be India's first woman president.
Ms. Patil, who will be sworn-in as president on July 25 won by three lakh margin overcoming NDA-backed independent applicant Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.
“This is the victory of the principles which our Indian people uphold,” she said.
In the final counting, Ms. Patil got 6,38,116 total votes whereas Shekhawat secured 3,31,306 in an electoral college of 10.98 lakh.
At the end of counting of votes, PDT Achary Lok Sabha Secretary General and returning officer said she got 65.82 per cent of the valid votes.
In Parliament, she received 442 votes versus 232 of Shekhawat. In states and union territories jointly, the succeeding applicant bagged 2,489 votes against the loser's 1,217.
Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee congratulated president-elect Pratibha Patil.
He said, “Please accept my heartiest felicitation on your resounding victory and my best wishes for your glorious tenure as our rashtrapatiji.”
