India has got its woman president in Pratibha Patil who won one of the bitterest political campaigns to the top post in the country's 60-year-old post independence history.

Patil, 72, was voted on Saturday as the 13th president of the country. She won by 306,810 votes against her rival Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, who contested the July 19 presidential election as an independent backed by opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Immediately after the results were announced, Patil came out of her temporary residence in the Capital to describe it as a "victory of principles, victory of right thinking" by the people.

Patil, a nominee of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), Left and Bahujan Samaj Party, got 325,180 votes from the state legislators and 442 of the total 682 MPs who cast their votes, paving her way to Rashtrapati Bhavan, the official residence of the president.

An MP's vote value is 706 and an MLA's varies from state to state according to its population.

Patil, who had been haunted by unsubstantiated opposition charges of corruption, fraud and improprieties, has won almost 11,000 more votes than expected. Shekhawat got 331,306 votes.

Congress party supporters erupted in jubilation across the country, bursting crackers, distributing sweets, dancing to drums and raising slogans in favour of Patil and party president Sonia Gandhi.

Patil's native Jalgaon village in Maharashtra and her husband Devisingh Ransingh Shekhawat's native place in Rajasthan's Sikar have been in celebration mood since morning as her victory was a foregone conclusion against her 84-year-old rival, Shekhawat, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) veteran.

Counting began 11 am on Saturday with Election Commission officials unsealing ballot boxes that arrived from 30 assemblies and the Parliament House.

Thursday's poll had been preceded by the most acerbic campaign, which many political analysts said had dented the prestige of the country's highest office.

The ruling Congress party had in turn charged Shekhawat of protecting his family members in a land scam and of serving the colonial police when India was fighting against the British rule in the pre-1947 era.

While a reticent Patil denied the charges during her national tour for campaign, Shekhawat's party went on raising fresh charges against the former Rajasthan governor.

The legislators in Kerala, Mizoram and Tripura voted only for Patil as Shekhawat drew a blank in both the states. It was a sweep for Patil in her home state Maharashtra, where she won the support of 223 MLAs leaving 58 for Shekhawat.

It was a similar story in Haryana with her getting 74 to Shekhawat's 6, Himachal Pradesh (47-20), Manipur (55-5), Meghalaya (49-6) Andhra Pradesh (223-2), Arunachal Pradesh (58-1), Assam (92-20, four votes were invalid), Jharkhand (49-28) Delhi (50-19), Goa (25-14), Nagaland (40-12), Sikkim (31-1) and Tamil Nadu (171-59).

In Karnataka it was a close fight as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s ruling ally Janata Dal-Secular abstained from voting. The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) candidate got 83 and her rival, 82.

Shekhawat got more votes in NDA-ruled states. In Bihar he got 145 to Patil's 89, in Chhattisgarh (51-37), Gujarat (123-57), Madhya Pradesh (163-56), Punjab (66-45), Orissa (100-46) and Rajasthan (134-63). The vice president belongs to Rajasthan.

The new president will be sworn in on July 25.