Pratibha Patil becomes India's first woman president
Pratibha Patil was
elected India's new president yesterday, the first woman to hold the office. "I ... hereby declare that Mrs Pratibha Devisingh Patil has been duly elected to the office of president of India," election returning officer P.D.T. Achary said.Patil, a native of western Maharashtra state, defeated Shekhawat by a large margin, securing 66 percent of the votes cast by an electoral college of federal and state lawmakers, Achary said.
Analysts say Patil has a tough act to follow in the form of India's popular outgoing President Abdul Kalam. Congress rebuffed his bid for a second five-year term because, analysts say, it wanted a party loyalist.
The silver-haired, shaggy-locked missile scientist, who became a national hero after overseeing successful tests in 1998 that turned India into a nuclear power, was dubbed "the people's president."
Patil's stint in Parliament began in 1985 when she was elected to the Rajya Sabha and became its Deputy Chairperson a little over a year later, a post in which she remained from November 18, 1986 to November 5 1988. During this period, she also headed the parliamentary committee on privileges.
She was the Maharashtra Congress chief from 1988 to 1990 before being elected to the Lok Sabha from Amravati in 1991.
Patil, who never lost an election, had gone into virtual political hibernation at the end of her tenure in the Lok Sabha and her only appearance in the political scene of Maharashtra was taking part in the party's campaign in polls. It was in November 2004 that the Congress leadership recalled her to become the Governor of Rajasthan.
Married to Devisingh Ramsingh Shekhawat, an educationist whose family had migrated from the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan to Jalgaon a few generations ago, Patil has one daughter Jyoti Rathore and a son Rajendra Singh. DR Shekhawat had been a mayor of Amravati.
A social worker by profession, Patil is associated with several cultural, educational and social welfare organisations.
Mr Noorani added that having a woman as president was "as significant as India having Indira Gandhi, Britain having Margaret Thatcher and Israel having Golda Meir as prime ministers. Symbols are important".
posted by Pradeep @ 7:00 AM,
