The presidency of Ram Nath Kovind began on , when he took the oath as the fourteenth president of India administered by Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar. Kovind was the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) nominee and defeated the Indian National Congress (Congress)-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) nominee and former speaker of Lok Sabha, Meira Kumar. Prior to being the presidential nominee, he was the governor of Bihar and a member of parliament in Rajya Sabha. Kovind secured approximately two-thirds of the electoral college vote of the elected members of the federal, state and union territory legislatures.
During his presidency, he has undertaken state visits to 28 countries. He has received the highest state honors from six countries, Madagascar, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Croatia, Bolivia and the Republic of Guinea. Just a few weeks after starting his presidency, Venkaiah Naidu, the BJP candidate for vice president won the 2017 Indian vice presidential election; President Kovind administered the oath of the office. In 2019, he administered the oath of office to Narendra Modi upon his re-election. He has held the office during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. He is the first leader from Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to occupy the office of president of India.
He appointed Dipak Misra, Ranjan Gogoi, Sharad Arvind Bobde and N. V. Ramana as chief justice of the Supreme Court, and other judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts.
Presidential election of 2017
The presidential election took place on , with the votes counted and the results announced on . President Pranab Mukherjee, whose term of office was due to expire on , declined to seek re-election due to health concerns and old age, so the INC nominated Meira Kumar as its candidate for president. Kovind thus resigned from the post of Governor of Bihar on , to contest the election.
Kovind won the election, getting roughly two-thirds of the electoral college vote. He defeated the Indian National Congress (Congress) nominee and former speaker of Lok Sabha, Meira Kumar. He was the first leader from Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to occupy the office of president of India.
Meira Kumar's vote share was the second-highest for a losing candidate; Neelam Sanjiva Reddy's vote share in the 1969 Presidential elections was the highest ever. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition share was around 25,000 electoral votes, but they expected other small parties MLA's and MP's to vote for their candidate. Kovind was the second dalit candidate to be elected president, the first being K. R. Narayanan.
Kovind took the presidential oath on , administered by Justice J.S. Khehar India, at a swearing-in ceremony in the central hall of Parliament, in New Delhi.
Domestic affairs
President's rule
Under Article 356 of the Constitution of India, if a state government cannot function according to Constitutional provisions, the Union government can take direct control of the state machinery by imposing the President's rule in the state. President Kovind has imposed President's rule in three states during his presidency.
Kovind imposed President's rule in the former state of Jammu and Kashmir from , to , as chief minister Mehbooba Mufti resigned. It continued until , when the state was split into two Union Territories on Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. After the states were split, President's rule continued in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir imposed under section 73 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.
As no party could form a government after a fractured election outcome because of the 2019 Maharashtra political crisis, Kovind imposed President's rule in Maharashtra from , to . It was lifted when Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as chief minister; he soon resigned and Uddhav Thackeray became the chief minister.
In Puducherry, President's rule was imposed from , upon the resignation of the chief minister when there was no alternate claimant to form the next government.
Oaths Administered
President Kovind administered oath to judges Dipak Misra, Ranjan Gogoi, Sharad Arvind Bobde and N. V. Ramana as chief justices of the Supreme Court and 29 Supreme Court justices. They were: