President Ram Nath Kovind 75th Birthday: Know Interesting Facts About Supreme Commander of Indian Armed Forces

President Ram Nath Kovind celebrates his 75th birthday on October 1. Ram Nath Kovind was born on October 1, 1945, into a Dalit family in Paraunkh village in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur district. Kovind, a Dalit face of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was elected as India's 14th President in July 2017. He defeated Meira Kumar, the presidential candidate of the Opposition.

President Kovind graduated in Law from DAV College, Kanpur. President Kovind practised law for 16 years before joining politics in 1994. A man of humble origin, Kovind is the second Dalit leader after KR Narayan to occupy the top constitutional post. Ram Nath Kovind Birthday Special: 9 Lesser-Known Facts About India's 14th President.

• Ram Nath Kovind became the personal secretary of then Prime Minister Morarji Desai in 1977.

• Kovind joined the BJP in 1991 and headed saffron party's Dalit Morcha from 1998 to 2002.
• Kovind was nominated twice as Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh in 1994 and again in 2002.
• Kovind represented India in the United Nations in New York and addressed the UN General Assembly in October, 2002.
• In 2010, Kovind involved in a controversy when it was reported that he had said that "Islam and Christianity are alien to the nation".
• In 2015, the then President Pranab Mukherjee appointed Kovind as Governor of Bihar. He served to the post till 2017, before succeeding Mukherjee.
• Kovind donated his ancestral home in Derapur to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He became the first leader from the organisation to be appointed as the President of India.
• His wife's name is Savita Kovind. The couple has a son, Prashant Kumar, and a daughter, Shweta.
• Kovind was a member of the Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata. He also served as a member of the Board of Management of B R Ambedkar University, Lucknow.

After the nomination for the post of 14th President of India, he resigned from his post as Governor of Bihar. Kovind received 65.65 percent of the valid votes, against former Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Meira Kumar. Notably, Kumar received 34.35 percent. LatestLY wishes President Ram Nath Kovind a very happy birthday.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 01, 2020 08:00 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).