Interesting Presidential Elections | #110

Gangs of Wasseypur turns 10

Jun 25, 2022

Hello friends

India loves elections. Westerners have described it as the dance of democracy but as Varun Grover once remarked “Yahaan nanga-naach ho raha hai.” The presidential elections are upon us. Though not as hotly contested or debated as the Lok Sabha elections, there is still plenty of intrigue involved in selecting the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed forces.

This week’s newsletter takes a look at a few of these elections.

Things we learnt this week 🤓

The 1969 presidential elections were held in the backdrop of a power struggle in the Congress Party. Indira Gandhi wanted Congress to nominate the veteran Dalit leader Jagjivan Ram. But that was shot down and instead Neelam Sanjeev Reddy was nominated. VV Giri declared that he would contest in the elections and till the day before the election, nobody knew who Indira Gandhi would vote for. She would choose VV Giri. In the end, the election was too close in round 1 and VV Giri emerged victorious in a runoff election. Indira got her way and ran off with a win.
The 2007 presidential election saw the victory of Pratibha Patil - India’s first woman president. But it wasn’t an easy win. When the ruling UPA announced her candidacy, the opposition NDA launched a website called knowpratibhapatil.com - its intention was to “educate” people about ‘the lady handpicked by Sonia Gandhi’. It didn’t work immediately as Pratibha Patil won by a comfortable margin, but probably laid the foundation of the IT cell.
37 candidates filed nominations for the 1977 Presidential election, but 36 were rejected. Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy is the only Indian president who won the election unopposed. When the time came, Neelam was Reddy to serve as the president.