Born on October 1, 1945 in Derapur village Jhinjhak block in Kanpur Dehat, Kovind had his primary education in Khanpur village under Sandalpur block in Kanpur Dehat
Jhinjhak, a non-descript block in Kanpur Dehat district of Uttar Pradesh, has suddenly shot into limelight, thanks to BJP's choice of Ram Nath Kovind as the next President.
Born on October 1, 1945 in Derapur village Jhinjhak block in Kanpur Dehat, Kovind had his primary education in Khanpur village under Sandalpur block in Kanpur Dehat.
His father Maikulal Kovind was a priest in his native village temple. Ram Nath was the youngest among five brothers and was studious since school days. "When we used to play and work in fields, he preferred to spend time on books," recalled his childhood friend Virendra Singh.
Kovind used to walk for about eight kilometres daily to Payagpur Dilwal when he was in Class VIII. Seeing his love for studies, his father send him to BSND Shiksha Niketan, Kanpur from where he passed Class XII.
He did his Graduation from DAV College, Kanpur and obtained law degree from the Kanpur University. After the death of his father, he left his native place and so did his brothers. "He did not have any connection with his native village after that," his childhood friend pointed out.
Kovind cleared the Civil Services in the third attempt but did not join as he was selected for the Allied services. He came to Delhi and started practising in Delhi High Court and later in Supreme Court.
In 1977, he became the Private Secretary of then Prime Minister Morarji Desai and later on joined the BJP. He unsuccessfully contested Lok Sabha twice from Ghatampur and Bhognipur in 1990 and 2007 respectively.
Later, he was elected to Rajya Sabha twice from Uttar Pradesh in 1994 and 2000. He was made the Bihar Governor in 2015. Kovind was also President of the BJP SC/ST Morcha and was a known Dalit face from Uttar Pradesh. In 2002, he represented India in United Nations to address the General Assembly.
Ever since he took over as the Governor of Bihar in August 2015, Kovind has been seen as a no-nonsense leader with a clean political image. Memories of Kovind at Mahagathbandhan's oath taking ceremony on November 20, 2015, are still afresh, when he had corrected RJD President Lalu Prasad Yadav's elder son and minister Tej Pratap Yadav over mispronouncing two words "Apekshit" as "Upekshit" and "Tab" as "Jab".
Married to Savita, the couple has two children, son Prashant Kumar and daughter Swati.
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 "Prime Minister Narendra Modi with RN Kovind")
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