India gets its 13th President as the former Finance Minister wins hands down

ELECTED \\ Pranab Mukherjee was elected the thirteenth President of India. Mukherjee who was Congress’ chief trouble-shooter over the past eight years garnered 69.3 per cent votes and defeated his rival P.A. Sangma—who was backed by AIADMK, BJD and NDA (minus Shiv Sena and JD-U)—by a bigger than expected margin. While his victory did not come as a surprise, it turned out be sweeter for Congress as they managed to put up a show of united alliance. Mukherjee won 117 votes in the BJP-ruled 224-member Karnataka Assembly as opposed to the expected 102 votes, Sangma got 103 votes. “I will like to take this opportunity to thank the people of this great country for conferring this distinction upon me by electing me to the high office,” said the former finance minister in his acceptance speech. “Now that you have entrusted me with the responsibility to protect, defend and preserve the Constitution as the President of the Republic, I will try to justify, in whichever modest way as I can, to be as trustworthy as possible,” he said. After the results were announced, Sangma congratulated his rival and added that the country had lost an opportunity to support the tribals of India.