New Delhi, July 16: Seventh President Neelam Sanjiva Reddy was the only one to be elected unopposed to the post in the history of independent India. He succeeded Fakruddin Ali Ahmed after his death in 1977. Ahmed breathed his last on February 11, 1977, a day after the Lok Sabha polls had commenced following two years of Emergency.
Elections to 11 state assemblies were also scheduled between June-July the same year and the Presidential election was notified only on July 4.
Ironically, the electoral college comprising 524 newly-elected Lok Sabha members, 232 Rajya Sabha members, and legislators from 22 state assemblies, did not have to cast their votes in the Presidential poll as Reddy was the only candidate left in the fray as nomination papers of 36 other aspirants were rejected.
While the 1977 poll was held amid unusual circumstances, the most interesting election was in 1969 when Reddy, the official candidate of the Congress, was defeated by Varaha Venkat Giri when the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi called for a “conscience vote” in her bid to trump her detractors within the party.
