Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday thanked people for electing him as the President and assured the nation that he would make earnest efforts to preserve and protect the Constitution.
"I would like to thank people of this great country for conferring this distinction by electing me to the high office," he said after the election results came in.
"Now they have entrusted me with the responsibility to protect, to defend and to preserve the Constitution as President of the Republic. I will try to justify, in a modest way as I can, to be trustworthy to the people", he said.
A visibly moved Mukherjee said he had received much more from the people, from the political establishment, from Parliament, from all sections of the people with whom he had come across in his five decades of public life.
"I received much more than I have given them," he said.
Video: ANI
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An emphatic victory
Noting that he had the privilege of visiting almost all state capitals in the last one month, he said he got overwhelming support and affection despite his introduction was limited to the members of the electoral collegium.
Mukherjee also utilised the opportunity to thank his rival P A Sangma who had congratulated him for the victory.
Pranab Mukherjee was on Sunday elected the next President trouncing P A Sangma by a huge margin to embark on a new journey capping over four decades of active political innings.
In a virtually one-side election that saw divisions in the opposition NDA, the 76-year-old UPA nominee Mukherjee secured a vote value of 7,13,763, garnering 69.3 per cent of the total 10,29,750 valid votes polled.
Rival P A Sangma, who was backed by BJP and some other opposition parties like AIADMK and BJD, trailed far behind with 3,15,987 vote value in the polling that saw heavy cross-voting against him by BJP MLAs in Karnataka in favour of Mukherjee.
Video: ANI
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