Dr Zakir Hussain is new President

New Delhi: Dr Zakir Hussain, the 70-year-old vice-president, became India’s third President, today with a convincing lead of 107,253 votes over his nearest rival, former Chief Justice Koka Subba Rao.

Dr Hussain polled 471,244 preference votes as against Subba Rao’s 36,971.

Besides, these, there are 15 candidates. The highest number of votes secured by any of them was less than 1,700. Eight of them did not get any votes.

Dr Hussain is the second member of the teaching profession and distinguished educationist to attain the highest office in the land. He is the first Muslim to become India’s head of the State and first citizen.

The election of Dr Hussain, the most hotly contested one for the office since India became a Republic, climaxes six weeks of intense political activity, deft party manoeuvres, acrimonious dialogue and keen speculation in the press and among the public.

As the counting of the boxes from Parliament and the state Assemblies had progressed for about four hours since 10 in the morning and it became evident that Dr Hussain had a clear lead. Congress members showed signs of jubilation that the result was going their way.

Shortly after 3 in the afternoon, B.N. Banerji, secretary to the Rajya Sabha and Chief Returning Officer, gave the official and final result which showed a big margin in favour of Dr Hussain.

The final result showed that 447 members of Parliament and 2,166 state Assembly members had cast their votes for Dr Hussain and that 278 members of Parliament and 1,829 members of state Assemblies had registered their preference for Subba Rao.