India elects first female president

New Delhi: India has elected it's first ever female president as Pratibha Patil won one of the bitterest political campaigns to the top post in the country's 60-year-old post independence history.

Patil, 72, was voted on Saturday as the 13th president of the country. She won by 306,810 votes against her rival Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.

Immediately after the results were announced Patil, a nominee of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), Left and Bahujan Samaj Party, said it was a "victory of principles, victory of right thinking" by the people.