New Delhi:
NDA nominee Ram Nath Kovind won the Presidential poll to become the 14th President of India. He got 7, 02, 644 votes while UPA's candidate Meira Kumar secured 3,67, 314votes, Returning Officer Anoop Mishra said.
Here are ten things you must know about him:
1. NDA's presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind has risen from a modest background just like the first dalit president K R Narayanan.
2. 70-year-old Kovind is a Dalit leader from Kanpur, he was president of the BJP Dalit Morcha from 1998 to 2002. He has also been President of the All India Koli Samaj as well as the SC/ST representative at IIM-Calcutta.
3. In 1977, before joining the BJP, Kovind worked as the private secretary of then prime minister Morarji Desai.
4. On august 8, 2015, Kovind was appointed as the Governer of Bihar.
5. Kovind is the 1st President from Uttar Pradesh- a state that has given 9 prime ministers to the country.
6. Kovind cleared prestigious UPSC exam but refused to join as he was selected for allied services rather IAS services.
7. As a lower caste member of Kerala society, he overcame poverty and public humiliation to become the top student in his masters degree examination in English literature in 1943.
8. He was ambassador to Thailand, China and the United States before the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi asked him to enter politics. He was also vice chancellor of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).
9. Kovind donated his ancestral house in his native village in Kanpur as 'Barat Ghar' or community house to the village.
10. Kovind has long been seen as the BJP's counter to Mayawati and In the 2012 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, Rajnath Singh had taken his during campaign in the Dalit areas.
