Kovind may land more votes than former presidents Pranab Mukherjee, Pratibha Patil

Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind was nominated by the NDA as their nominee for the presidential elections.

NDA presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind may end up getting more votes than President Pranab Mukherjee and his predecessor, Pratibha Patil.

Prime Minister Narenda Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah with NDA's presidential nominee and Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind in New Delhi on June 19, 2017. (PTI)

Kovind has almost secured 6,09,433 votes, with parties like the Biju Janata Dal, Telangana Rashtra Samithi and the YSR Congress throwing their weight behind him. The AIADMK, the fourth-largest party with 59,000 votes, is also expected to back Kovind. The BJP hopes to split the Opposition camp and rope in more undecided parties for the cause.

Though the Bahujan Samaj Party is yet to officially announce its support for the Dalit candidate, party chief Mayawati has reacted “positively” to his nomination.

While Mukherjee secured 7,13,763 votes in the 2012 election, Patil got 6,38,116 in 2007.

Here’s a detailed look at the country’s presidential polling statistics:

Results of previous Presidential Election

1st Presidential poll (1952)

Candidate Name	Votes
Dr. Rajendra Prasad	507,400
K.T. Shah	92,827
Thatte Lakshman Ganesh	2,672
Chowdhry Hari Ram	1,954
Krishna Kumar Chatterjee	533

2nd Presidential poll (1957)

Candidate Name	Votes
Dr. Rajendra Prasad	459,698
Chowdhry Hari Ram	2,672
Nagendra Narayan Das	2,000

3rd Presidential poll (1962)

Candidate Name	Votes
Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan	553,067
Chowdhry Hari Ram	6,341
Yamuna Prasad Trisulia	3,537

4th Presidential poll (1962)

Candidate Name	Votes
Zakir Hussain	471,244
Kota Subbarao	363,971
Khubi Ram	1,369
Yamuna Prasad Trisulla	232
Bhamburkar Shriniwas Gopal	232
Brahma Deo	232
Krishna Kumar Chatterjee	125
Kumar Kamla Singh	125
Chandradutt Senani	0
U.P. Chugani	0
Dr. M.C. Davar	0
Chowdhry Hari Ram	0
Dr. Man Singh Ahluwalia	0
Manohara Holkar	0
Seetharamaiah Ramaswamy Sharma Hoysala	0
Satyabhakt	0

5th Presidential poll (1969)

Candidate Name	Votes
Varahagiri Venkata Giri (INDEPENDENT)	401,515 / 420,077
Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy (INDEPENDENT)	313,548 / 405,427
C.D. Deshmukh	112,769
Chandradatt Senani	5,814
Furcharan Kaur	940
Rajabhoj Pandurang Nathuji	831
Babu Lal Mag	576
Chowdhry Hari Ram	125
Sharma Manovihari Anirudh	125
Khubi Ram	94
Bhagmal	0
Krishna Kumar Chatterjee	0
Santosh Singh Kachhwaha	0
Dr. Ramdular Tripathi Chakor	0
Shri Ramanlal Prushottam Vyas	0

6th Presidential poll (1974)

Candidate Name	Votes
Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (INC)	754,113
Tridib Chaudhuri (INDEPENDENT)	189,196

7th Presidential poll (1977)

Candidate Name	Votes
Neelam Sanjiva Reddy	Won unopposed*

*37 candidates filed nominations, 36 got rejected

8th Presidential poll (1982)

Candidate Name	Party	Votes
Zail Singh	Indian National Congress	754,113
H.R. Khanna	Independent	282,685

9th Presidential poll (1987)

Candidate Name	Party	Votes
R. Venkataraman	Indian National Congress	740,148
V. R. Krishna Iyer	Independent	281,550
Mithilesh Kumar	Independent	2,223

10th Presidential poll (1992)

Candidate Name	Party	Votes
Shankar Dayal Sharma	Indian Nationlal Congress	675,864
G.G. Swell	Independent	346,485
Ram Jethmalani	Independent	2,704

11th Presidential poll (1997)

Candidate Name	Party	Votes
K.R. Narayanan	Indian National Congress	956,290
T.N. Seshan	Independent	50,631
Kaka Joginder Singh a.k.a. Dharti Pakad	Independent	1,135

12th Presidential poll (2002)

Candidate Name	Party	Votes
Abdul Kalam	Independent	922,884
Lakshmi Sahgal	CPI(M)	107,366

13th Presidential poll (2007)

Candidate Name	Party	Votes
Pratibha Patil	Indian National Congress	638,116
Bhairon Singh Shekhawat	Independent	331,306

14th Presidential poll (2012)

Candidate Name	Party	Votes
Pranabh Mukherjee	Indian National Congress/UPA	713,763
P.A.Sangma	Independent	315,987