India’s fourth President is the only person ever elected to the office as an independent candidate. He is also the only person to have first served as Acting President, then won election to the post outright.
Acting President: A temporary stand-in who discharges the President’s duties during a vacancy, until a new President is elected.
Ordinance: A law the President (or Acting President) issues when Parliament isn’t sitting — it has full force of law right away.
Bank nationalisation: The government taking ownership of privately run banks — India did this to 14 major banks in 1969.
Congress (O): The breakaway faction of the Indian National Congress, formed after the party split over the 1969 presidential election.
1India’s 4th President, and the Only Independent
Must Know
- Varahagiri Venkata Giri (V.V. Giri) was India’s fourth President, serving from 24 August 1969 to 24 August 1974.
- He is the only person elected President of India as an independent candidate, with no party’s official backing.
- Born on 10 August 1894 in Berhampur, Odisha.
2Acting President, Then Elected in His Own Right
Must Know
This sequence — acting, then resigning, then winning outright — has never happened to anyone else.
- He served as India’s Vice-President from 1967 to 1969, before becoming President.
- When President Dr. Zakir Husain died in office in May 1969, Giri took over as Acting President the same day.
- In July 1969, he resigned as Acting President to contest the presidential election himself. He won it a month later, becoming President in his own right.
True or False: V.V. Giri won the 1969 presidential election as the official Congress party candidate.
3Expelled From Ireland, and a Trade Union Founder
Good to Know
- Before entering politics, Giri studied law in Ireland at University College Dublin. He was expelled in 1916, over suspected links to the Irish nationalist movement.
- He co-founded the All India Railwaymen’s Federation in 1923, and went on to lead the All India Trade Union Congress.
- He served as India’s Labour Minister from 1952 to 1954, and later as a state Governor, before becoming Vice-President.
Think it through. Giri’s career ran from a deported law student and trade union organiser, to constitutional Head of State. What does that arc say about the office of President?
Show the explanation
It shows the office doesn’t demand one fixed type of career to reach it. India’s early Presidents included a Constitution-drafter, a philosopher-diplomat, and now a labour organiser. Giri spent decades fighting for railway workers’ rights before ever holding a government post. What connects them isn’t a shared background. It’s a shared kind of public standing, built over a long career — through scholarship, institution-building, or, in Giri’s case, representing working people. The Presidency was designed as an office anyone with that kind of standing could reasonably reach, not one reserved for a single professional path.
4The Bank Nationalisation Ordinance, Signed on His Way Out
Great to Know
- Immediately before resigning as Acting President in July 1969, Giri promulgated the ordinance that nationalised 14 major banks.
- This was a major economic policy decision. It was made by an office not directly elected at the time — a real test of how much authority an Acting President can exercise.
True or False: the bank nationalisation ordinance was signed after Giri had already been elected President in his own right.
5The Election That Split the Congress Party
Great to Know
- In the closely contested 1969 presidential election, Giri defeated the official Congress candidate, Neelam Sanjiva Reddy.
- Party leaders backed Reddy, but Prime Minister Indira Gandhi openly supported Giri instead, despite him running against her own party’s nominee. The resulting rift produced the breakaway Congress (O).
- Giri was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1975, a year after leaving office. He died on 24 June 1980.
Think it through. Indira Gandhi openly backed a candidate from outside her own party, against her own party’s official nominee, in a presidential election. Why would a sitting Prime Minister take that risk?
Show the explanation
Because the fight wasn’t really about who would be President — it was about who would control the Congress party itself. By 1969, Indira Gandhi was in open conflict with senior party leaders. This group was later nicknamed the “Syndicate.” The fight was over the direction of government policy, including bank nationalisation. Backing an independent candidate against the Syndicate’s own nominee was a way to publicly test, and break, their hold over the party. It worked: Giri won, and the Syndicate’s loss of that fight helped trigger the formal split into Congress (R) and Congress (O) soon after. A presidential election, on paper just about choosing a Head of State, ended up reshaping who actually controlled India’s ruling party.
Quick Q&A
- What makes Giri’s presidential election unique in Indian history? He is the only President ever elected as an independent, with no party’s official backing.
- What sequence of roles did Giri hold in 1969, in order? Vice-President, then Acting President (after Husain’s death), then resigned, then elected President outright.
- What major economic decision did Giri make just before resigning as Acting President? He promulgated the ordinance nationalising 14 major banks.
- What political consequence followed the 1969 election? The Indian National Congress split, producing the breakaway Congress (O), after Indira Gandhi backed Giri over her own party’s candidate.
MCQ on Test Yourself
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Related reading
- Dr. Zakir Husain — his predecessor, whose sudden death made Giri Acting President.
- Neelam Sanjiva Reddy — the official Congress candidate Giri defeated in 1969.
- Odisha — Giri’s home state.
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