Ram Nath Kovind is greeted with a bouquet on being elected as the 14th President of India, in New Delhi on Thursday. PTI PhotoWashington: The United States has congratulated president-elect Ram Nath Kovind on his electoral victory and said that it looks forward to working with him on regional and global issues.
Kovind, a low-key lawyer-turned-politician, was Thursday elected as India's 14th president, the first BJP member and the second dalit to occupy the country's highest office.
"We want to congratulate the president-elect Ramnath Kovind on his victory," State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters at a news conference Thursday.
Noting that the US and India have a "deep and growing strategic partnership", she said: "We look forward to working with the president-elect on regional and global issues."
Nauert credited the close people-to-people contact between the world's two largest democracies with the type of partnership they share.
"That partnership is obviously underpinned by our very close people-to-people contact with the Indian government and our shared democratic values," Nauert said in response to a question.
A former Bihar governor, Kovind, 71, received 2930 votes with a value of 7,02,044, to defeat the joint opposition candidate Meira Kumar, a former Lok Sabha speaker, who got 1844 votes with a value of 3,67,314.
Kovind garnered 65.65 percent of the votes in the electoral college against the BJP's projected 70 percent vote for him.
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