While the US President has managed to hog all the limelight just about everyday in office, the Indian President was ushered in a more laid-back affair in the past month which is just as well considering the fact that is largely a ceremonial post. However, it was the ushering in of the 13th Vice-President yesterday, as against the 14th President earlier that got me to delve in to the history of these posts and the resulting mismatch in their count.
While Wikipedia has a well structured list of Presidents and Vice-Presidents, it is difficult to follow the changes for both the posts in sequence. Hence, I decided to chronologise the same and have presented it in the table below.
Interestingly, only twice has the Vice-President been ushered in with the President on the same day, which can be considered to be an oddity of sorts, though perfectly justifiable considering the circumstances and the duration of the posts.
| Date of taking office | Pres/VP Count | President Taking Office | VP Taking Office |
26-Jan-1950 | 1/0 | Rajendra Prasad | – |
13-May-1952 | 1/1 | – | Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan |
13-May-1962 | 2/2 | Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan | Zakir Husain |
13-May-1967 | 3/3 | Zakir Husain | Varahagiri Venkata Giri |
03-May-1969 | 3/3 | Varahagiri Venkata Giri | – |
20-Jul-1969 | 3/3 | Mohammad Hidayatullah | – |
24-Aug-1969 | 4/3 | Varahagiri Venkata Giri | – |
31-Aug-1969 | 4/4 | – | Gopal Swarup Pathak |
24-Aug-1974 | 5/4 | Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed | – |
31-Aug-1974 | 5/5 | – | Basappa Danappa Jatti |
11-Feb-1977 | 5/5 | Basappa Danappa Jatti | – |
25-Jul-1977 | 6/5 | Neelam Sanjiva Reddy | – |
31-Aug-1979 | 6/6 | – | Mohammad Hidayatullah |
25-Jul-1982 | 7/6 | Giani Zail Singh | – |
31-Aug-1984 | 7/7 | – | Ramaswamy Venkataraman |
25-Jul-1987 | 8/7 | Ramaswamy Venkataraman | – |
03-Sep-1987 | 8/8 | – | Shankar Dayal Sharma |
25-Jul-1992 | 9/8 | Shankar Dayal Sharma | – |
21-Aug-1992 | 9/9 | – | Kocheril Raman Narayanan |
25-Jul-1997 | 10/9 | Kocheril Raman Narayanan | – |
21-Aug-1997 | 10/10 | – | Krishan Kant |
25-Jul-2002 | 11/10 | A. P. J. Abdul Kalam | – |
19-Aug-2002 | 11/11 | – | Bhairon Singh Shekhawat |
25-Jul-2007 | 12/11 | Pratibha Patil | – |
11-Aug-2007 | 12/12 | – | Mohammad Hamid Ansari |
25-Jul-2012 | 13/12 | Pranab Mukherjee | – |
25-Jul-2017 | 14/12 | Ram Nath Kovind | – |
11-Aug-2017 | 14/13 | – | Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu |
