List of presidents of India

The president of India is the head of state of the Republic of India and the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces. The president is referred to as the first citizen of India.^[1]^[2] Although vested with these powers by the Constitution of India, the position is largely a ceremonial one and executive powers are de facto exercised by the prime minister.^[3]

Top left: Rajendra Prasad was the first and longest-serving President of India.
Top right: Zakir Husain was the first from a minority religion to become President of India.
Bottom left: Pratibha Patil was the first female President of India.
Bottom right: Droupadi Murmu is the current President and the first President from the tribal community.

The president is elected by the Electoral College composed of elected members of the parliament houses, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, and also members of the Saasana Sabha or Vidhan Sabha, the state legislative assemblies.^[2] Presidents may remain in office for a tenure of five years, as stated by article 56, part V, of the Constitution of India. In the case where a president's term of office is terminated early or during the absence of the president, the vice president assumes office. By article 70 of part V, the parliament may decide how to discharge the functions of the president where this is not possible, or in any other unexpected contingency.

There have been 15 presidents of India since the post was established when India was declared as a republic with the adoption of the Indian constitution in 1950.^[4] Apart from these fifteen, three acting presidents have also been in office for short periods of time. V. V. Giri became the acting president in 1969 after Zakir Husain died in office. Giri was elected president a few months later. He remains the only person to have held office both as a president and acting president. Rajendra Prasad, the first president of India, is the only person to have held office for two terms.^[5]

Seven presidents have been members of a political party before being elected. Six of these were active party members of the Indian National Congress. The Janata Party has had one member, Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, who later became president. Two presidents, Zakir Husain and Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, have died in office. Their vice presidents served as acting presidents until a new president was elected. Following Zakir Husain's death, two acting presidents held office until the new president, V. V. Giri, was elected. When Giri resigned to take part in the presidential elections, he was succeeded by Mohammad Hidayatullah as acting president.^[6] The 12th president, Pratibha Patil, is the first woman to hold the office, elected in 2007.

On 25 July 2022, Droupadi Murmu took office as the 15th president of India, becoming the second woman and the first tribal person to hold the office.^[7]

List

This list is numbered based on presidents elected after winning an Indian presidential election. The terms of V. V. Giri, Mohammad Hidayatullah and B. D. Jatti, who served as acting president are therefore not numbered or counted as actual terms in office. The president of India does not represent any political party. The colors used in the table indicate the following:

Legend

Indian National Congress (INC) (8)

Janata Party (JP) (1)

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) (3)

Independent (IND) (2)

Acting President (3)

Key

^RES Resigned
^† Died in office

No.	Portrait	Name (Birth–Death)	Home state	Former Office(s)	Term of office			Election	Election Map	Vice President	Political party
No.	Portrait	Name (Birth–Death)	Home state	Former Office(s)	Assumed office	Left office	Time in office	Election	Election Map	Vice President	Political party
Interim		Rajendra Prasad (1884–1963)	Bihar	Minister of Agriculture	26 January 1950	13 May 1952	12 years, 107 days	1950		–	Indian National Congress
1					13 May 1952	13 May 1957		1952		Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
1					13 May 1957	13 May 1962		1957		Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
2		Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888–1975)	Tamil Nadu	Vice President of India	13 May 1962	13 May 1967	5 years	1962		Zakir Husain	Independent
3		Zakir Husain (1897–1969)	Andhra Pradesh	Vice President of India Governor of Bihar	13 May 1967	3 May 1969^[†]	1 year, 355 days	1967		V. V. Giri
Acting		V. V. Giri (1894–1980)	Odisha	Vice President of India	3 May 1969	20 July 1969	78 days	–	–
Acting		Mohammad Hidayatullah (1905–1992)	Chhattisgarh	Chief Justice of India	20 July 1969	24 August 1969	35 days	–		–
4		V. V. Giri (1894–1980)	Odisha	Vice President of India Governor of Kerala	24 August 1969	24 August 1974	5 years	1969		Gopal Swarup Pathak
5		Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (1905–1977)	National Capital Territory of Delhi	Minister of Agriculture	24 August 1974	11 February 1977^[†]	2 years, 171 days	1974		Gopal Swarup Pathak B. D. Jatti	Indian National Congress
Acting		B. D. Jatti (1912–2002)	Karnataka	Chief Minister of Karnataka	11 February 1977	25 July 1977	164 days	–	–		Indian National Congress
6		Neelam Sanjiva Reddy (1913–1996)	Andhra Pradesh	Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh	25 July 1977	25 July 1982	5 years	1977		B. D. Jatti Mohammad Hidayatullah	Janata Party
7		Zail Singh (1916–1994)	Punjab	Chief Minister of Punjab	25 July 1982	25 July 1987	5 years	1982		Mohammad Hidayatullah Ramaswamy Venkataraman	Indian National Congress
8		Ramaswamy Venkataraman (1910–2009)	Tamil Nadu	Vice President of India Minister of Defence	25 July 1987	25 July 1992	5 years	1987		Shankar Dayal Sharma
9		Shankar Dayal Sharma (1918–1999)	Madhya Pradesh	Vice President of India Governor of Maharashtra	25 July 1992	25 July 1997	5 years	1992		K. R. Narayanan
10		K. R. Narayanan (1920–2005)	Kerala	Vice President of India	25 July 1997	25 July 2002	5 years	1997		Krishan Kant
11		A. P. J. Abdul Kalam (1931–2015)	Tamil Nadu	Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government of India	25 July 2002	25 July 2007	5 years	2002		Krishan Kant Bhairon Singh Shekhawat	Bharatiya Janata Party
12		Pratibha Patil (1934–Present)	Maharashtra	Governor of Rajasthan	25 July 2007	25 July 2012	5 years	2007		M. Hamid Ansari	Indian National Congress
13		Pranab Mukherjee (1935–2020)	West Bengal	Minister of Defence Minister of Finance Minister of External Affairs	25 July 2012	25 July 2017	5 years	2012		M. Hamid Ansari	Indian National Congress
14		Ram Nath Kovind (1945–Present)	Uttar Pradesh	Governor of Bihar	25 July 2017	25 July 2022	5 years	2017		M. Hamid Ansari M. Venkaiah Naidu	Bharatiya Janata Party
15		Droupadi Murmu (1958–Present)	Odisha	Governor of Jharkhand	25 July 2022	Incumbent	2 years, 104 days	2022		M. Venkaiah Naidu Jagdeep Dhankhar	Bharatiya Janata Party

Statistics

Representation of presidents by party of candidacy

Indian National Congress (53.33%)

Independent (26.67%)

Bharatiya Janata Party (13.33%)

Janata Party (6.67%)

Timeline

Citations

^ "President Ram Nath Kovind is India's first citizen. Your chances begin only at Number 27". indiatoday.com. Times of India. 26 July 2017. Archived from the original on 30 July 2017. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
^ ^a ^b "The Constitution of India". Ministry of Law and Justice of India. Archived from the original (.doc) on 5 February 2009. Retrieved 4 January 2009.
^ "India gets first woman president since independence". BBC News. 25 July 2007. Archived from the original on 15 February 2009. Retrieved 30 November 2008.
^ "1950: India becomes a republic". BBC News. 26 January 1950. Archived from the original on 17 January 2008. Retrieved 6 January 2009.
^ Harish Khare (6 December 2006). "Selecting the next Rashtrapati". The Hindu. India. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 30 November 2008.
^ Shekhar Iyer (25 June 2007). "Shekhawat will not resign to contest poll". Hindustan Times. India. Archived from the original on 11 January 2009. Retrieved 4 January 2009.
^ "Droupadi Murmu oath taking ceremony LIVE updates: Droupadi Murmu takes oath as India's 15th President". The Times of India. 25 July 2022. Retrieved 25 July 2022.

References

External links

[1] "President Ram Nath Kovind is India's first citizen. Your chances begin only at Number 27". indiatoday.com. Times of India. 26 July 2017. Archived from the original on 30 July 2017. Retrieved 19 November 2017.

[constitution-2] "The Constitution of India". Ministry of Law and Justice of India. Archived from the original (.doc) on 5 February 2009. Retrieved 4 January 2009.

[bbc_patil-3] "India gets first woman president since independence". BBC News. 25 July 2007. Archived from the original on 15 February 2009. Retrieved 30 November 2008.

[4] "1950: India becomes a republic". BBC News. 26 January 1950. Archived from the original on 17 January 2008. Retrieved 6 January 2009.

[selecting_next-5] Harish Khare (6 December 2006). "Selecting the next Rashtrapati". The Hindu. India. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 30 November 2008.

[resign-6] Shekhar Iyer (25 June 2007). "Shekhawat will not resign to contest poll". Hindustan Times. India. Archived from the original on 11 January 2009. Retrieved 4 January 2009.

[7] "Droupadi Murmu oath taking ceremony LIVE updates: Droupadi Murmu takes oath as India's 15th President". The Times of India. 25 July 2022. Retrieved 25 July 2022.

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