BJP-backed candidate Kovind elected India’s President
NEW DELHI: Ram Nath Kovind, a candidate backed by the ruling coalition, won the presidential election on Thursday, tightening the governing alliance's hold over positions of power.
Votes from 4,896 lawmakers in state assemblies and parliament were counted in parliament to elect the constitutional head, a largely ceremonial post.
"Kovind has secured a clear majority," an election official told Reuters.
Kovind, 71, a low-caste Dalit politician with Hindu nationalist roots, beat Meira Kumar, also a Dalit, backed by the centrist Congress party.
Under the constitution, the prime minister and his cabinet colleagues wield executive power and the president remains above the fray.
But the president has a key role during political crises, such as when a general election is inconclusive, by deciding which party is in the best position to form a government.
Shekhar Gupta, a political commentator said Kovind, 71, a low-caste Dalit politician, had maintained a low-profile through his public career, a quality valued by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government.
"Kovind will not be an irritant for the Modi government that works with sense of total power, they don’t prefer any distraction to their plans."
Some presidents, such as the current incumbent, Pranab Mukherjee, have tried to act as conscience-keepers, using their constitutional authority as the head of state to defend India's founding principles as a secular and diverse democracy.
Kovind's ascent to the highest public office would be the first for a leader reared in the powerful Hindu revivalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) or National Volunteers' Association, the ideological mentor of the BJP.
Modi, himself, was associated early on with the RSS that has long propagated a Hindu-first India.
Kovind's victory would cap a series of top appointments Modi has made, strengthening the grip of the Hindu right on public offices, such as governors, state chief ministers and the heads of universities.
Kovind said he was committed to the constitution, with India a secular democratic republic.
"I respect the Indian constitution and no political interest can be above the rule enshrined in the rule book," Kovind told Reuters this month.
The opposition's Kumar, also a Dalit, said her candidacy aimed to fight the ideology Kovind represents.