List of presidents of India

The president of India is the head of state of the Republic of India and the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces. The president is referred to as the first citizen of India. Although vested with these powers by the Constitution of India, the position is largely a ceremonial one and executive powers are de facto exercised by the prime minister.

The president is elected by the Electoral College composed of elected members of the parliament houses, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, and also members of the Saasana Sabha or Vidhan Sabha, the state legislative assemblies. Presidents may remain in office for a tenure of five years, as stated by article 56, part V, of the Constitution of India. In the case where a president's term of office is terminated early or during the absence of the president, the vice president assumes office. By article 70 of part V, the parliament may decide how to discharge the functions of the president where this is not possible, or in any other unexpected contingency.

There have been 15 presidents of India since the post was established when India was declared as a republic with the adoption of the Indian constitution in 1950. Apart from these fifteen , three acting presidents have also been in office for short periods of time. Varahagiri Venkata Giri became the acting president in 1969 after Zakir Husain, died in office. Giri was elected president a few months later. He remains the only person to have held office both as a president and acting president. Rajendra Prasad, the first president of India, is the only person to have held office for two terms.

Seven presidents have been members of a political party before being elected. Six of these were active party members of the Indian National Congress. The Janata Party has had one member, Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, who later became president. Two presidents, Zakir Husain and Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, have died in office. Their vice presidents served as acting presidents until a new president was elected. Following Zakir Husain's death, two acting presidents held office until the new president, Varahagiri Venkata Giri, was elected. When Giri resigned to take part in the presidential elections, he was succeeded by M. Hidayatullah as acting president. The 12th president, Pratibha Devisingh Patil, is the first woman to hold the office, elected in 2007.

On 25 July 2022, Droupadi Murmu took office as the 15th president of India, becoming the second woman and the first tribal person to hold the office.

List

This list is numbered based on presidents elected after winning an Indian presidential election. The terms of Varahagiri Venkata Giri, M. Hidayatullah and B. D. Jatti, who served as acting president are therefore not numbered or counted as actual terms in office. The president of India does not represent any political party. The colors used in the table indicate the following:

Legend

  Indian National Congress (INC) (8)

  Janata Party (JP) (1)

  Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) (2)

  Independent (IND) (4)

  Acting President (3)

Key

• ^RES Resigned
• ^† Died in office

No.	Portrait	Name (Birth–Death)	Home State	Term of Office			Election	Vice President	Appointed by	Political Party
				Assumed Office	Left Office	Time in Office
Interim		Rajendra Prasad (1884–1963)	Bihar	26 January 1950	13 May 1952	12 years, 107 days	–	–	Harilal Jekisundas Kania	Indian National Congress
1				13 May 1952	13 May 1957		1952	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan	M. Patanjali Sastri
				13 May 1957	13 May 1962		1957		Sudhi Ranjan Das
2		Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888–1975)	Tamil Nadu	13 May 1962	13 May 1967	5 years	1962	Zakir Husain	Bhuvneshwar Prasad Sinha	Independent
3		Zakir Husain (1897–1969)	Andhra Pradesh	13 May 1967	3 May 1969	1 year, 355 days	1967	Varahagiri Venkata Giri	K. N. Wanchoo
Acting		Varahagiri Venkata Giri (1894–1980)	Odisha	3 May 1969	20 July 1969	78 days	–	–	M. Hidayatullah
Acting		M. Hidayatullah (1905–1992)	Uttar Pradesh	20 July 1969	24 August 1969	35 days	–	–	J. C. Shah
4		Varahagiri Venkata Giri (1894–1980)	Odisha	24 August 1969	24 August 1974	5 years	1969	Gopal Swarup Pathak	M. Hidayatullah
5		Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (1905–1977)	National Capital Territory of Delhi	24 August 1974	11 February 1977	2 years, 171 days	1974	Gopal Swarup Pathak B. D. Jatti	A. N. Ray	Indian National Congress
Acting		B. D. Jatti (1912–2002)	Karnataka	11 February 1977	25 July 1977	164 days	–	–	M. Hameedullah Beg
6		Neelam Sanjiva Reddy (1913–1996)	Andhra Pradesh	25 July 1977	25 July 1982	5 years	1977	B. D. Jatti M. Hidayatullah		Janata Party
7		Giani Zail Singh (1916–1994)	Punjab	25 July 1982	25 July 1987	5 years	1982	M. Hidayatullah R. Venkataraman	Y. V. Chandrachud	Indian National Congress
8		R. Venkataraman (1910–2009)	Tamil Nadu	25 July 1987	25 July 1992	5 years	1987	Shankar Dayal Sharma	R. S. Pathak
9		Shankar Dayal Sharma (1918–1999)	Madhya Pradesh	25 July 1992	25 July 1997	5 years	1992	K. R. Narayanan	M. H. Kania
10		K. R. Narayanan (1920–2005)	Kerala	25 July 1997	25 July 2002	5 years	1997	Krishan Kant	J. S. Verma
11		A. P. J. Abdul Kalam (1931–2015)	Tamil Nadu	25 July 2002	25 July 2007	5 years	2002	Krishan Kant Bhairon Singh Shekhawat	B. N. Kirpal	Independent
12		Pratibha Devisingh Patil (1934–)	Maharashtra	25 July 2007	25 July 2012	5 years	2007	M. Hamid Ansari	K. G. Balakrishnan	Indian National Congress
13		Pranab Mukherjee (1935–2020)	West Bengal	25 July 2012	25 July 2017	5 years	2012		S. H. Kapadia
14		Ram Nath Kovind (1945–)	Uttar Pradesh	25 July 2017	25 July 2022	5 years	2017	M. Hamid Ansari M. Venkaiah Naidu	J. S. Khehar	Bharatiya Janata Party
15		Droupadi Murmu (1958–)	Odisha	25 July 2022	Incumbent	4 years, 16 days	2022	M. Venkaiah Naidu Jagdeep Dhankhar	N. V. Ramana

Statistics

Representation of presidents by party of candidacy

  Indian National Congress (53.33%)

  Independent (26.67%)

  Bharatiya Janata Party (13.33%)

  Janata Party (6.67%)

Timeline

See also

• President of India
• Vice President of India
• Prime Minister of India
• List of vice presidents of India
• List of prime ministers of India
• List of heads of state and government of Indian origin

External links

• World Statesmen – India
• Rulers.org – India