Pratibha Devisingh Patil is the current President of India, the 12th person and first woman to hold the office. She was sworn in as President of India on July 25, 2007, succeeding Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. Patil, a member of the Indian National Congress (INC), was nominated by the ruling United Progressive Alliance and Indian Left. She won the presidential election held on July 19, 2007 defeating her nearest rival Bhairon Singh Shekhawat by over 300,000 votes. Pratibha Shekhawat was born to Narayan Rao Patil in Nadgaon, Maharashtra. She studied at R.R. School at Jalgaon. She received her M.A. from Mooljee Jaitha (M.J.) College, Jalgaon (affiliated to North Maharashtra University, Jalgaon) and obtained a law degree from the Government Law College, Mumbai (affiliated to University of Bombay). She married educator Devisingh Ramsingh Shekhawat on July 7, 1965. One of her colleagues and close friends at the University of Bombay, Nishant Raina, introduced her to table tennis, a sport she excelled in, winning various inter-college tournaments. In 1962, Pratibha Patil was voted "College Queen" of M.J. College. The same year, she won an assembly election from Edlabad constituency on the Indian National Congress ticket. Patil represented Edlabad constituency in Jalgaon District, Maharashtra as a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly (1962-1985), and was deputy chairwoman of the Rajya Sabha (1986-1988), Member of Parliament from Amravati in the Lok Sabha (1991-1996), and the 24th, and the first woman Governor of Rajasthan (2004-2007). She began her political career in 1962 at the age of 27. Under the mentorship of senior Congress leaders like Dr Abasaheb ,Gopalrao Khedkar and ex-Chief Minister Yashwantrao Chavan, she became a deputy minister for education after re-election in 1967 (in the Vasantrao Naik ministry). In her next terms (1972-78) she was a full cabinet minister for the state. In successive congress governments, she handled the portfolios of tourism, social welfare and housing under several chief ministers, Vasantdada Patil, Babasaheb Bhosle, S. B. Chavan and Sharad Pawar. She was continually re-elected to the assembly, either from Jalgaon or the nearby Edlabad constituencies, until 1985, when she was elected to the Rajya Sabha as a Congress candidate. She has never lost an election that she has contested. In 1977, the Congress party split up after Indira Gandhi's defeat following the Indian Emergency (1975–1977). Many senior leaders of state Congress(I), including Pratibha's mentor Chavan and his protege Sharad Pawar, as well as much of the rank and file joined the Congress (Urs) party floated by Devraj Urs. However, Pratibha preferred to remain with Indira Gandhi, though it verged on inviting political ridicule. In fact, few know that Pratibha managed Indira Gandhi's kitchen when Sanjay Gandhi died. She protested the arrest of Indira Gandhi in December 1977 and spent 10 days in prison. In 1978, when the Congress (Urs) came to power in Maharashtra, she became Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly. In 1980, the Congress (I) swept back into power, and her name was considered a front-runner for the Chief Minister's post. However, the post went to Sanjay Gandhi's confidant A. R. Antulay, who was soon forced to resign on corruption charges. Subsequently, she became a minister again in the Vasantdada Patil ministry. Following differences between Patil and then Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) chief Prabha Rau, Rajiv Gandhi appointed her as MPCC chief (1988-90). She was elected to the Rajya Sabha, and served as its deputy chairperson from November 1986 to November 1988. Her term expired in April 1990. The following year, in the elections when Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated she won the election for the 10th Lok Sabha from Amravati constituency, her husband's city, where he had once been mayor, thus first time entering in lower house of national parliament Lok Sabha. She has also served as Director of National Federation of Urban Co-operative Banks & Credit Societies and the Member of Governing Council, National Co-operative, Union of India. She was appointed as Governor of Rajasthan in November 2004, eight years after she had completed her term in the 10th Lok Sabha, Pratibha Patil was recalled from political hibernation to become the first woman Governor of Rajasthan. She was the second politician from Maharashtra in this post, the first being Vasantdada Patil. With Pratibha Patil as Governor, Rajasthan had women in three significant positions of power in the state, including Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and Assembly Speaker Sumitra Singh. In April 2006, the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly passed the Rajasthan Freedom of Religion Bill 2006 (originally titled as "Rajasthan Dharma Swatantrya Bill, 2006"). The objective of the bill was to control "unlawful conversion from one religion to another by allurement or by fraudulent means or forcibly." However, some Christian organizations opposed the bill alleging that the bill was an outcome of the rightist policies of Sangh Parivar.She returned the bill unsigned, stating certain clauses in the Bill infringed on "the fundamental rights such as freedom of speech and expression, freedom of conscience and freedom to profess, practice and propagate religion." The Government of Rajasthan re-sent the bill to her in May 2006 noting that similar anti-conversion laws enacted by Congress governments in Madhya Pradesh and Orissa over 40 years ago were upheld by the Supreme Court of India and that the head of the Constituent Assembly, Dr B R Ambedkar, while drafting Article 25 of the Constitution had said that it would be best to leave it to the state legislatures to make laws to regulate conversions. After sitting on the bill for over a year she sent it to the President of India just a day before she resigned as governor of Rajasthan. A similar bill named Himachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act 2006 passed later was promptly signed by the state governor.She resigned as the Governor of Rajasthan on June 21, 2007, due to her presidential candidacy. On 14 June, United Progressive Alliance (UPA), the ruling alliance of political parties in India headed by Congress (I), and the Indian left nominated her as their candidate for the Presidential Election to be held on 19 July 2007.She emerged as a compromise candidate after the Left parties would not agree to the nomination of past Home Minister Shivraj Patil. At that point, Sonia Gandhi proposed Pratibha Patil's name. Her loyalty to Nehru-Gandhi family was widely perceived to be a major factor in her nomination as UPA-Left Presidential candidate.She won the presidential election held on July 19, 2007 defeating her nearest rival Bhairon Singh Shekhawat by over 300,000 votes. She took office as India's first female president on July 25, 2007
