Pranab Mukherjee elected 13th president of India

13th President of India Pranab Mukherjee (File photo)

The former finance minister of India Pranab Mukherjee has won the presidential election to become India's 13th head of state.

He got the magic figures (around 5.18 lakh worth of votes) to become new president of India, online version of Times of India said.

Mukherjee got the required number during the counting of votes at Parliament House on Sunday.

The formal announcement to this effect will be made soon by the Election Commission of India after completion of the counting process, the report said.

Counting of votes of 15 more states are still awaited but it will only have an academic value.

As expected, the UPA constituents and its key supporting parties like SP, BSP, RJD and others had supported Mukherjee. Besides, he also got the support of opposition parties like Shiv Sena and JD(U).

Mukherjee defeated the BJP-backed presidential candidate P A Sangma.

Mukherjee got the overwhelming support of Parliamentarians (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs) in the President's election securing a vote value of 3,73,116. He got the remaining vote value (1.36lakh) to reach the magic number (majority mark of 5.18) lakh) from the MLAs who cast their votes in his favour.

Sangma, on the other hand, managed to get a vote value of only 1,45,848 in the counting of votes of MPs. His vote value increased to over 2.2 lakh when votes of MLAs of BJP-ruled states counted.

Mukherjee is scheduled to take oath on Wednesday. nepalnews.com