Ram Nath Kovind

Ram Nath Kovind married Savita Kovind on May 30, 1974. They have two children - a son, Prashant, and a daughter, Swati.

Ram Nath Kovind was born on 1 October 1945 in Kanpur Dehat district, Uttar Pradesh, India, to Maiku Lal and Kalawati Devi. His father was a farmer, and their family was a humble one. Their family belonged to the Dalit community, a historically oppressed group in India.

Not much is known about his early years or schooling. After completing his high school education, he earned a Bachelor’s degree in commerce before completing his LLB from Kanpur University.

He aspired to be an IAS officer and moved to Delhi to prepare for the civil services examination. He cleared the coveted examination on his third attempt but was not selected for IAS and instead chosen for an allied service. He decided not to join and thus started practicing law.

Ram Nath Kovind’s legal career proved to be a successful one. In 1971, he was also enrolled as an advocate with the bar council of Delhi. He served as a Central Government Advocate in Delhi High Court from 1977 to 1979, before serving as a Central Government standing counsel in the Supreme Court from 1980 to 1993.

Meanwhile in 1978, he became an advocate-on-record of the Supreme Court of India. Around this time, he also served as the personal assistant of the then-Prime Minister of India Morarji Desai (1977-78).

Hailing from the Dalit community, Kovind felt strongly about social justice issues. A crusader for the rights and cause of weaker sections of the society from his student days, he provided free legal aid to the oppressed sections of society, especially the women and the underprivileged, under the Free Legal Aid Society in New Delhi.

His high-prolife legal career brought him in contact with several politicians, and he himself ventured into the field in 1991 by joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In April 1994 he was elected as a Rajya Sabha MP from the state of Uttar Pradesh. He proved to be quite popular in this position and served for a total of 12 years till March 2006.

In 1997, Kovind joined the SC/ST employees' movement against the central government to protest against some government orders. These orders were later termed null and void through the passage of three amendments to the Constitution.

Ram Nath Kovind was picked as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate for the position of the 14th President of India on June 19, 2017. After his nomination to contest for India's top-most position, he resigned as Governor of Bihar.

On July 20, 2017, he was declared the 14th President of India. He defeated opposition's joint candidate, Meira Kumar. He took the oath of office on July 25, 2017.