Pratibha Patil has recently been elected the President of India and she has taken the place of Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on 25th July, 2007. Before being elected the President of India she was the Governor of Raiasthan. Pratibha Patil is the first female President of India. She has been a successful lawyer and she has acted actively on various posts in Indian National Congress swone her for the post of President Chief Justice V G. Balakrishnan.

Smt. Patil was born on 19th December, 1934 at Nadgaon in Maharashtra. She belongs to a Maratha family. Pratibha Patil, a member of Indian National Congress was nominated by ruling United Progressive .Alliance and Indian Left. She won the Presidential election on July 19, 2 D07 defeating her nearest rival Bhairon Singh Shekhawat by over 300000 votes.

Smt. Path’s primary education was started in R. R. School at Jalgaon and she attained Master Degree (M.A.) from Mooljee Jaitha (M.J.) College Jalgaon affiliated to North Maharashtra University Jalgaon and obtained the law degree from the Government Law College. Mumbai affiliated to Mumbai University. Smt. Patil was not a brilliant student only but she was an active athlete also during her college days. Pratibha Patil was voted “College Queen” of M. J. College in 1962 and same year she started her political career.

Smt. Patil married with a educator Devisingh Ransingh Shekhawat on July 7th 1965 at the age of 31. She made her own identification in politics and she did not take the help of her husband’s name. During her marriage life God gifted her a son and a daughter.

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A successful lawyer Patil first of all represented Edlabad constituency in Jalgaon District as a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly in 1962. She represented this constituency continuously till 1985. After that she was elected the deputy chairperson of Rajya Sabha in 1986 and she acted on this post till 1988. Smt. Patil contested the Lok Sabha election in 1991 from Amrawati constituency and won the election magnificently.

She represented this constituency till 1996. Because of her faithfulness and dedication to the party Indian National Congress appointed her the Governor of the largest state as Rajasthan, On 8th November 2004 and she took the place of Madan Lai Khurana. Smt. Patil has been the first female Governor of Rajasthan.

She set up an educational institute Vidya Bharti Shikshan Prasarak Mandal that runs a chain of schools and colleges in Jalgaon and Mumbai She also set up Shram Sadhana Trust. She also founded and was the Chair-person of a cooperative sugar factory known as Sant Muktaba Sahkari Sakkar Karkhana and a Cooperative Bank named after herself as Pratibha Mahila Sahakari Bank.

During her political career she became deputy minister for education after re-election in 1967 in the Vasantra Naik Ministry and she became cabinet Minister for the state in successive congress Government she became the minister of Tourism, Social Welfare and Housing under several Chief Ministers. She was continually reelected to the assembly either from Jalgaon or the nearby Edlabad constituencies, till 1985.

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She was elected to the Rajya Sabha as a Congress candidate She never lost an election that she had contested.

In April, 2006 the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly passed the Rajasthan Freedom of Religion Bill 2006 (originally titled as Rajasthan Dharma Swatantrya Bill 2006) Pratibha Patil returned the bill unsigned The Rajasthan Government resent the bill to her in may 2006. After sitting on the bill for over an year she sent it to the President of India just a day before resigning as Governor of Rajasthan.

After her nomination as Presidential candidate Rajni Patel, the widow of the murdered congressman from Jalgaon in a press conference in Dell alleged that Pratibha used her influence for shielding her brother G. N. Patil in the murder case of her husband. She was also alleged for financial mismanagement in her family controlled bank. BJP has highlighted he past activities and made comments as part of political campaign again; her.

An advocate Manoharlal Sharma filed a Public Interest Litigation before a bench of Supreme Court of India but in spite of these allegation his candidature was not cancelled. Smt. Patil has been a friend of dispute: She was commented about Rajni Patil’s husband murder case, an financial mismanagement in his family controlled bank and about the speech on Purdah (veil) but she faced every circumstance bravely.

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She has been deputy minister for public Health, Prohibition, Tourism Housing and Parliamentary affairs in Government of Maharashtra from 1967 to 1972 and cabinet minister for Public Health and Social welfare.

Government of Maharashtra from 1972 to 1975. She has also been the Cabinet Minister for Education in Maharashtra. She has been the Leader of opposition in Maharashtra Assembly from 1979 to 1980. After that she has been elected deputy Chair Person of Rajya Sabha from 1986 to 88 and Chair Person of House Committee in Lok Sabha 1991 to 1996.

Ups and downs are the nature of human life and Smt. Patil is not an exception. But she is strong and firm by nature and she has a will power: defeat her opponents and critics. We can expect that she will serve our country consciously and our nation will be safe and respected in her hands. The allegations are made on one another in present politics. But it is very important to face the allegations and achieve the great aim. Pratibha Patil has shown us it very well. And now she is beautifying the post of President of India.