India elected its first female president today, official results showed. Supporters called it a boost for the rights of millions of downtrodden women, despite a bitter campaign marked by scandal.
Pratibha Patil, the ruling coalition's 72-year-old nominee for the mainly ceremonial post, easily beat opposition-backed challenger and standing Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat in a vote by the national parliament and state politicians. "This a victory of the people," Ms Patil told reporters after official results were announced. "I am grateful to the people of India and the men and women of India and this is a victory for the principles which our Indian people uphold."
Ms Patil won about two thirds of the electoral college votes. There had never been any doubt she would win, given support from the ruling coalition.
The governor of the northwestern desert state Rajasthan, she emerged on the national stage when the Congress-led coalition and its communist allies failed to agree on a joint candidate.
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, India's most powerful politician, had called Patil's nomination a "historic moment" and proof the country "respects women".
Supporters hoped Patil's candidacy would help bring issues that plague women in India - like dowry-related violence - into the public spotlight. A woman is murdered, raped or abused every three minutes on average in India.
But hope Patil's presidency would spark only positive talk about women's influence in India evaporated when it emerged the bank for woman she helped established was closed in 2003 because of bad debts amid accusations of financial irregularities.