List of Presidents of India

Presidents of India

The President of India is the head of state of the Republic of India. The President is the formal head of the legislature, executive and judiciary branches of Indian Democracy and is the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. The powers to pardon and clemency are vested with the President of India.

The President is elected, from a group of nominees, by the elected members of the Parliament of India (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) as well as of the state legislatures (Vidhan Sabhas), and serves for a term of five years. Historically, ruling party (majority in the Lok Sabha) nominees have been elected and run largely uncontested. Incumbent presidents are permitted to stand for re-election. A formula is used to allocate votes so there is a balance between the population of each state and the number of votes assembly members from a state can cast, and to give an equal balance between State Assembly members and National parliament members. If no candidate receives a majority of votes, then there is a system by which losing candidates are eliminated from the contest and their votes are transferred to other candidates, until one gains a majority. The Vice-President is elected by a direct vote of all members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

List of Presidents of India:

1. Rajendra Prasad

2. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

Dr. Zakir Hussain

3. Varahagiri Venkata Giri*

Mohammad Hidayatullah*

4. Varahagiri Venkata Giri

5. Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed

Basappa Danappa Jatti*

6. Neelam Sanjiva Reddy

7. Zail Singh

8. Ramaswamy Venkataraman

9. Shankar Dayal Sharma

10. Kocheril Raman Narayanan

11. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

12. Pratibha Patil

13. Pranab Mukherjee**

The symbol (*) with a light brown background indicates an Acting President of India.

**Pranab Mukherjee wins 2012 Presidential election.