India elects first female president
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Pratibha Patil has scored a landslide win, despite several scandals. (AFP: Noah Seelam)
India has elected its first female president, in what supporters are hailing as a boost for the rights of millions of downtrodden women, despite a bitter campaign marked by scandal.
Pratibha Patil, the ruling coalition's 72-year-old nominee, has easily beaten 84-year-old Opposition-backed challenger and standing Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat in a vote by the national Parliament and state politicians.
Ms Patil has won by a large margin, securing 66 per cent of the votes.
A stream of well-wishers is thronging her residence in New Delhi, while people are dancing in the streets in the new President's home town of Jalgaon.
"This a victory of the people," Ms Patil said after official results were announced.
"I am grateful to the people of India and the men and women of India, and this is a victory for the principles which our Indian people uphold."
A junior minister in the Prime Minister's office, Prithviraj Chavan, says Ms Patil's win is a historic moment for India.
"In the 60th year of India's independence, a woman will be elected as the president very shortly. We are very happy," he said.
Ms Patil, a lawyer and the Governor of the north-western desert state, Rajasthan, emerged on the national stage when the Congress-led coalition and its communist allies failed to agree on a joint candidate.
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi plucked Ms Patil from relative political obscurity, saying her election would boost the cause of gender equality and would be a historic moment.
Supporters hoped Ms Patil's nomination would help bring issues that plague women in India, like dowry-related violence, into the public spotlight. A woman is murdered, raped or abused every three minutes on average in India.
Scandals
But Ms Patil was buffeted by accusations that she protected her brother in a murder probe and shielded her husband in a suicide scandal, in a campaign described by analysts as the most vitriolic in India's post-colonial history.
There were also claims of nepotism and involvement in a slew of financial scams.
Ms Patil, a demure figure who dresses conservatively in a sari pulled over her hair, has denied any wrongdoing.
She was also mocked for telling television viewers that a dead spiritual guru gave her a "divine premonition of greater responsibility".
India's top news magazine, India Today, put her on its front cover with the headline: "Embarrassing Choice".
Analysts say Ms Patil has a tough act to follow in the form of India's popular outgoing President Abdul Kalam.
Congress rebuffed his bid for a second five-year term because, analysts say, it wanted a party loyalist.
The silver-haired, shaggy-locked missile scientist, who became a national hero after overseeing successful tests in 1998 that turned India into a nuclear
power, was dubbed the "People's President" for his populist style.
Under the constitution, the Prime Minister holds the executive reins but the President plays a role in forming governments at state and federal levels, making the post hotly contested.
Ms Patil's presidency reflects the growing power of some women in India, where an increasing number are taking part in the work force and in schools and hold senior positions in corporations as India enters the globalised economy.
India has had a few female icons in the past, most famously Sonia Gandhi's mother-in-law, Indira, who was one of the world's first female prime ministers in 1966.
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