List of Presidents of India from 1947 to 2020

The President of India occupies the highest post in the Indian constitution. He is the symbol of integrity, solidarity, and unity of the country. In this article, we will look at the list of all those candidates who have presided on the post of the president since 1947 to the present.

Who is responsible for the selection of the President in India?

The Electoral College committee is the one that includes the voted members of the two Parliament houses, the nominated members of state’s legislative assemblies and the voted members of the legislative assembly of Pondicherry and Delhi’s Union territories.

For how many years can the President rule a nation?

The tenure of President is around five years. The importance of the person who heads the President post can be gauged as there is no law that can get approved in the country without his signature.

1. Dr. Rajendra Prasad

Dr. Rajendra Prasad

The first president of the Indian constitution was Dr. Rajendra Prasad. He has given his services for the nation for a period of two years. He has also been voted for the post of the Chief Leader in the execution of the Indian Independence Movement.

He was elected as the President of the Constituent Assembly. In the year 1962, Dr. Rajendra Prasad was nominated and awarded with the most prized possession for any Indian citizen “Bharat Ratna”.

2. Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

Dr. Sarvepalli Radha krishnan was the second president of India. His birth date, September 5, 1888, is celebrated as “Teacher’s Day” in the country. Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was also awarded the most prestigious award “Bharat Ratna” in the year 1954.

3. Dr. Zakir Husain

Dr. Zakir Husain

Dr. Zakir Husain was the 1st ever Indian President of Muslim origin. He was the first president who died during the tenure of his president rule. After his death, the immediate Indian Vice President “V.V. Giri”took over the role of the acting President. After the end of the rule of V.V. Giri, Supreme Court’s Chief Justice “Mohammad Hidayatullah”got the responsibility to serve as the Indian President for the time period between 20 July 1969 to 24 August 1969.

Mohammad Hidayatullah had a great interest in tabla and was considered to be the popular tabla player of the country. Mohammad Hidayatullah was also known to have brought a drastic and positive revolution in the field of Indian education. It is only under his leadership that National Muslim University “Jamia Millia Islamia”got established.

4. V. V Giri

V. Giri

V.V Giri was ranked as the 4th Indian President. His complete name is Varahagiri Venkata Giri. One of the interesting facts about V. V. Giri is that he was the only independent candidate to have got nominated as an elected President. He was also awarded the prestigious award “Bharat Ratna” in the year 1975.

5. Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed

Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed

He is the fifth President of our Indian constitution. After Dr. Zakir Husain, Fakhruddin Ali was the 2nd President to die during offering his services like the Indian President. To fill the position, BD Jattha was elected in his place and was made the acting President.

6. Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy

Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy

Now the sixth candidate to have become the Indian President was Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy. Before being elected for this post, he was rendering his services as the first Andhra Pradesh’s Chief Minister. An interesting thing to know about Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy is that he was the 1st candidate to attain the position of Chief Minister of Andra Pradesh.

He got elected for the President post directly from Lok Sabha speaker. Another not much-known fact about Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy is that he had been the youngest President to have occupied President Palace and was challenged two times for the position of President.

7. Giani Zail Singh

Giani Zail Singh

Before becoming the Indian President, GianiZail Singh was performing his duties as Punjab’s Chief Minister. He was the one to have made use of“Pocket Veto” on the Post Office Bill. At the time of his rule, several incidents occurred, some of them being the 1984 anti-Sikh demonstrations, Blue Star operation, and the murder of Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi.

8. Venkataraman

Venkataraman

Venkataraman got selected as the Indian President for the period between 25 July 1987 and 25 July 1992. R. Venkataraman was an acclaimed Indian lawyer and Indian Independence activist. Before becoming the President, he was rendering his services as Indian Vice-President from the period 1984 to 1987.

During his presidential rule, he has been honored with several honors from various areas of the world. One of the honors that R. Venkataraman received was “Tamra Patra”. This award was given for his incredible contributions towards India’s freedom movement. Due to his impressive services, the Russian government also awarded the “Soviet Land Prize”to him in the year 1967. This award is given for preparing the talk on former Prime Minister of Tamil Nadu, Kumaraswami Kamaraj.

9. Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma

Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma

Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma has been serving his duties as the Indian Vice President before becoming the President of India. He had been the Bhopal Chief Minister from the year 1952 to 1956 and Cabinet Minister from the year 1956 to 1967. He was awarded ‘Living Legend of Law Award of Recognition’ by the “International Bar Association for his numerous achievements in the area of the legal profession.

10. K R Narayanan

K R Narayanan

After the completion of the work tenure of Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma, K. R. Narayanan took the president position. One of the lesser known facts about him is that he was the 1st Indian Dalit President and the 1st Malayali person to have received this esteemed position of the country.

11. Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam

Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam

People call Dr. A. P.J. Abdul Kalam as the ‘Missile Man of India’. This was the first time in the history of the Indian constitution that any scientist took over the place of President. He had won maximum votes. In his rule,Prithvi and Agni missiles, and Rohini-1 satellites were launched successfully. In the year 1997, he was also awarded the most honorable award “Bharat Ratna”.

12. Shrimati Pratibha Singh Patil

Shrimati Pratibha Singh Patil

Smt. Pratibha Singh Patil has been working as the Rajasthan’s Governor before getting to the post of the President. From the year 1962 to the year 1985, she had been elected as the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly member 5 times.

13. Pranab Mukherjee

Pranab Mukherjee

Before Pranab Mukherjee became the President, he was serving as the Indian finance minister. In the year 1997, he got awarded with the “best Parliamentary Award”. Also, he got the 2nd highest civilian honor “Padma Vibhushan” in the year 2008.

14. Ram Nath Kovind

Ram Nath Kovind

Ram Nath Kovind got elected after the end of the term of Pranab Mukherjee’s presidential rule. He is a politician and an Indian lawyer. Ram Nath Kovind is the fourteenth and the present Indian President who got elected on 25 July 2017. Before getting this position, he was working as the Governor of Bihar.

Page Contents