Ram Nath Kovind To Take The Oath Of India’s 14th President Today

Today,  Ram Nath Kovind will take the oath as the 14th President of the country. Nominated by the BJP-led NDA, the former Governor of Bihar won the presidential election last week receiving over 7 lakh votes in the Electoral College by defeating Opposition candidate Meira Kumar.

After KR Narayanan, Kovind will be the country’s second Dalit President. He served as a BJP MP in the Rajya Sabha and headed the party’s SC-ST wing for a while before becoming the Governor of Bihar. During his 12-year stint as a lawmaker, he has held key positions in parliamentary committees. A lawyer by training, Kovind has addressed the United Nations as India’s representative in 2002. For 16 years, he practiced at both the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court.

Born on October 1, 1945, in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur Dehat district, he comes from a modest background and has worked his way up from the ground to the top of the political pyramid. With a special focus on SC/ST women, poor and the elderly, Kovind has helped in providing free legal aid to backward and weaker sections of the society.