After completion of Dr Rajendra Prasad's two terms as the President of India, he made it clear that he would not contest the third Presidential election due to poor health conditions. This made Dr Radhakrishnan the obvious choice for the Congress Presidential candidate. His victory was almost certain. This time too no party had fielded any candidate against him.
Dr Radhakrishnan had been the Vice President since 1952. During his tenure, the way he presided over the Rajya Sabha, everyone was impressed. The respect for him was such that both the ruling and the opposition members used to listen to him. He did not allow the situation of uproar in the house. So, after remaining the Vice President for 10 years, Dr Radhakrishnan became the President in 1962.
Read | Presidential Election 1957: Who was Nehru's candidate for the post instead of Rajendra Prasad?
Dr Radhakrishnan had an illustrious career. He became a professor of philosophy at the age of just 20 years. When he used to take part in the lectures of philosophy in the country and abroad, people used to listen to him in awe. He was the person who was able to tell the West how to understand Indian philosophy.
Radhakrishnan had also made a mark for himself as India's Ambassador to Moscow. He was sent there in July 1949. By the end of his tenure as the Ambassador, not only had India's relations with the Soviet Union improved, but Stalin also started liking him. Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit's tenure as Ambassador had not made a mark with Soviet Union.
Dr Radhakrishnan, who hailed from Tamil Nadu, got 5,53,067 votes, while Chowdhry Hari Ram got 6341 votes this time. Hari Ram had been contesting as an independent candidate for the last two terms, but it was for the first time that he got so many votes.
Read | Presidential election 1952: 4 independent candidates who challenged Rajendra Prasad
Presidential Election 2022
Coming to the present, parties are busy discussing names of candidates for the Presidential election to be held on July 18. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to Mamata Banerjee, Mallikarjun Kharge and Akhilesh Yadav and sought their opinion on the names of candidates for the Presidential election.
However, all the three leaders asked the government to announce their candidate for the post of President. Earlier on Wednesday, a meeting of opposition parties was held in Delhi under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee. In this, the opposition announced to come to a consensus on the name of a common candidate.
NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, earlier declined to be the joint opposition candidate for the Presidential elections at a meeting called by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in New Delhi. Mamata Banerjee, at the meeting, then proposed the names of National Conference Chief Farooq Abdullah and Mahatma Gandhi's grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi as nominees for the July elections.
Meanwhile, BJP might not re-nominate Ram Nath Kovind for the second term. Rajendra Prasad was the only President to get two full terms.
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