PRATIBHA PATIL IS ELECTED INDIA'S FIRST WOMAN PRESIDENT

Congress activists in a jubilant mood ahead of the Presidential poll results on Friday in Allahabad

Pratibha Patil was on Saturday elected the country's first woman President, defeating NDA-backed independent Bhairon Singh Shekhawat by a huge margin in a bitterly contested poll following which he resigned as Vice President.

The 72-year-old UPA-Left nominee won by a margin of over three-lakh vote value while Shekhawat drew a blank in as many as four states and suffered cross voting against him in BJP-ruled Gujarat and Chhattisgarh and some other states ruled by its allies.

Shortly after the official declaration of Patil's victory, 84-year-old Shekhawat quit as Vice-President. He drove to Rashtrapati Bhavan and handed over his resignation to President A P J Abdul Kalam.

In the final count, Patil got a vote value of 6,38,116 while Shekhawat secured 3,31,306 in the electoral college of 10.98 lakhs. The winner got 65.82 per cent of the valid votes.

Most constituents of the Third Front having 12.5 per cent vote share in the electoral college abstained from the poll.

Patil, who will be the country's 13th President, would be sworn in on July 25 in the Central Hall of Parliament.

There were scenes of jubilation at the temporary residence of Patil in the South Avenue area of the capital as also outside 10 Janpath, the residence of UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were among the first political leaders to greet the President-elect, who thanked the people for her success. Patil said it was a "victory of the principles which our Indian people uphold".

Patil's election historic: Bardhan

Terming the election of Patil to the office of President as "historic", CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan today said those who opposed her have to reconcile to the UPA-Left candidate's victory. "It is a historic win and we have a woman president at the 60th year of independence...it is a great moment," Bardhan told reporters. "Those who have opposed her have to reconcile her victory," he said.