Pratibha Patil, who was born on December 19, 1934 in Nadgaon, Maharashtra, is the candidate for the United Progressive Alliance and the Left Front for the President of India. A lawyer by training she was the 16th Governor of Rajasthan and the first female governor. Previously, she had been the Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha from 1986 to 1988. In her political life, Patil has never lost an election that she has contested and was continually elected to the state assembly from either Jalgaon or Edlabad constituency. She studied at RR School at Jalgaon . She completed her MA from MJ College, Jalgaon, and obtained a Law Degree from the Government Law College, Mumbai. During her college days, she excelled in table tennis, winning shields in inter-college tournaments. In 1962, Pratibha Patil was voted "College Queen" of Mooljee Jaitha (MJ) College in Jalgaon. The same year, she won an assembly election from Edlabad constituency on the Indian National Congress ticket.
Together with her husband, Mrs Patil, set up an educational institute, Vidya Bharati Shikshan Prasarak Mandal, which runs a chain of schools and colleges in Jalgaon and Mumbai. She has also set up Shram Sadhana Trust that runs hostels for working women in New Delhi and Mumbai. In 1977 when the Congress party split up after Emergency, Pratibha Patil preferred to remain with Indira Gandhi, an act of loyalty, which was remembered by Rajiv Gandhi and later by Sonia Gandhi.
Together with her husband, Mrs Patil, set up an educational institute, Vidya Bharati Shikshan Prasarak Mandal, which runs a chain of schools and colleges in Jalgaon and Mumbai. She has also set up Shram Sadhana Trust that runs hostels for working women in New Delhi and Mumbai. In 1977 when the Congress party split up after Emergency, Pratibha Patil preferred to remain with Indira Gandhi, an act of loyalty, which was remembered by Rajiv Gandhi and later by Sonia Gandhi.
