The presidency of Ram Nath Kovind began on 25 July 2017, when he took the oath as the fourteenth president of India administered by Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar. Kovind was the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) nominee and defeated the Indian National Congress (Congress)-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) nominee and former speaker of Lok Sabha, Meira Kumar. Prior to being the presidential nominee, he was the governor of Bihar and a member of parliament in Rajya Sabha. Kovind secured approximately two-thirds of the electoral college vote of the elected members of the federal, state and union territory legislatures.