Ram Nath Kovind

After graduating in law from DAV College, Kanpur, Kovind went to Delhi to prepare for the civil services examination. He passed this exam on his third attempt, but he did not join because he had only scored high enough to work in an allied service rather than in IAS and thus started practising law.[12]

Kovind enrolled as an advocate in 1971 with the bar council of Delhi. He was Central Government Advocate in the Delhi High Court from year 1977 to year 1979. Between 1977 & 1978, he also served as the personal assistant of Prime Minister of India Morarji Desai.[13] In 1978, he became an advocate-on-record of the Supreme Court of India and served as a standing counsel for the Central Government in the Supreme Court of India from 1980 to 1993. He practised in the Delhi High Court and Supreme Court until 1993. As an advocate, he provided pro-bono aid to weaker sections of society, women and the poor under the Free Legal Aid Society of New Delhi.[9]

He joined the BJP in 1991.[13] He was President of the BJP Dalit Morcha between 1998 and 2002 and President of the All-India Koli Samaj. He also served as national spokesperson of the party.[14] He donated his ancestral home in Derapur to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.[13] Soon after joining the BJP, he contested for Ghatampur assembly constituency, but lost and later contested for Bhognipur (in 2007) (both in Uttar Pradesh) assembly constituency on the BJP ticket but lost again.[15]

In 1997, Kovind joined the protest against certain orders from the Central government that had adverse effects on the SC/ST workers. Later, three amendments were made to the Constitution that revoked the orders, by the NDA government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.[16]

He was elected and became a Rajya Sabha MP from the state of Uttar Pradesh in April 1994. He served a total of twelve years, two consecutive terms, until March 2006. As a member of parliament, he served on the Parliamentary Committee for Welfare of Scheduled Castes/Tribes, Home Affairs, Petroleum and Natural Gas, Social Justice and Empowerment, Law and Justice. He also served as the chairman of the Rajya Sabha House Committee. During his career as a parliamentarian, under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme, he focused on education in rural areas by helping in construction of school buildings in Uttar Pradesh and Uttrakhand. As a member of parliament, he visited Thailand, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore, Germany, Switzerland, France, the United Kingdom and the United States on study tours.[10]

He has served on the Board of management of Dr. B.R Ambedkar University, Lucknow, and as on the Board of Governors of IIM Calcutta. He has also represented India at the UN and addressed the United Nations General Assembly in October 2002.[17]

On 8 August 2015, the then President of India appointed Kovind as Governor of Bihar.[18] On 16 August 2015, the acting Chief Justice of Patna High Court, Iqbal Ahmad Ansari, administered the oath to Kovind as the 35th Governor of Bihar. The function took place at Raj Bhawan, Patna.[19]

Governor of Bihar Ram Nath Kovind welcoming President Pranab Mukherjee at Patna on 17 April 2017

Kovind's appointment was criticised by then Chief Minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar as it came months before State Assembly elections and the appointment was made without consulting State Government as recommended by Sarkaria Commission.[20] However, Kovind's term as Governor, was praised for constituting a judicial commission to investigate irregularities in promotion of undeserving teachers, mis-management of funds and appointment of undeserving candidates in universities.[13] In June 2017, when Kovind was announced as candidate for Presidential election, Nitish Kumar backed Kovind's choice and praised Kovind as being unbiased and working closely with the State Government during his Governorship.[21]

After nomination for the post of 14th President of India, he resigned from his post as Governor of Bihar, and President of India Pranab Mukherjee accepted his resignation on 20 June 2017.[22] He won election on 20 July 2017.[23]

Ram Nath Kovind received 65.65% of the valid votes, against former Speaker of the Lok Sabha - Meira Kumar, the presidential candidate of the Opposition who received 34.35% of the total votes. Kovind received 2,930 votes (From MPs and MLAs) amounting to Electoral College votes of 702,044 (65.65%) as compared to 1,844 votes with a value of 367,314 (34.35%) votes for Meira Kumar lagging far behind with 367,314 votes, and 77 votes were invalid.[24] He became only the second Dalit representative to become President after K. R. Narayanan, and also is the first BJP candidate to be elected to the post.[25] The tally of votes (367,314) polled by Meira Kumar is only the second highest for a losing candidate, that of Neelam Sanjiva Reddy in the 1969 Presidential elections being the highest ever; he received 405,427 votes as against 420,077 by V V Giri, the winner.

President Ram Nath Kovind with Dipak Misra after administering his oath as the Chief justice of India on 28 August 2017

Kovind made trips to 19 different countries, each for state visit.

Year	Country	Areas Visited	Date(s)	References
2017	Djibouti	Djibouti City	3–4 October	[28][29]
	Ethiopia	Addis Ababa	5–6 October	[30][31][32]
2018	Mauritius	Port Louis	11–14 March	[33][34]
	Madagascar	Antananarivo	14–15 March	[33]
	Equatorial Guinea	Malabo	7–9 April	[35]
	Swaziland	Mbabane	9–10 April	[36]
	Zambia	Lusaka	10–12 April	[37][38]
	Greece	Athens	16–19 June	[39][40]
	Suriname	Paramaribo	19–21 June	[40][41]
	Cuba	Havana	21–23 June	[42][43]
	Cyprus	Nicosia	2–4 September	[44]
	Bulgaria	Sofia	4–6 September	[44]
	Czech Republic	Prague	6–9 September	[44]
	Tajikistan	Dushanbe	7–9 October	[45]
	Vietnam	Da Nang, Hanoi	18–21 November	[46][47]
	Australia	Sydney, Melbourne	21–24 November	[46][48]
2019	Croatia	Zagreb, Croatia	25–27 March	[49]
	Bolivia	Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia	28–30 March	[50]
	Chile	Santiago, Chile	30 March – 1 April	[51]