The newly chosen President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, is a bit of a mystery. Even though he has been a public servant for more than two decades, not much is known about him. He has been quietly but steadily working for the representation on Dalits and for education for all, and it has led him all the way to the Rashtrapati Bhawan. Here are the things you need to know about him:

1. He was born in Kanpur, UP, is the son of a Dalit farmer and comes from the koli (weaver's) community.

2. He appeared for the civil services exam, making it into the applied services section in his third attempt, but chose to do law instead, and the rest is history.

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3. He was personal secretary to Prime Minister Morarji Desai in 1978. This started his journey into the political arena, even though he has largely kept a low profile.

4. Even though he lost the Lok Sabha election from BJP in 1990, he was nominated as a Member of Parliament from UP and served for a collective 12 years.

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5. Ram Nath Kovind is the second Dalit President of India, the first being KR Narayanan. He beat another Dalit candidate Meira Kumar.

6. He has deep ties with the RSS. He donated his ancestral home in Derapur to the Sangh.

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7. He was the Governor of Bihar from 2015-2017, and maybe that's why he has the support of JDU leader Nitish Kumar as a presidential candidate.

8. He does not want you to waste time watching TV. As a parliamentarian he asked what steps were being taken to limit the number of movies being telecast because children were wasting their time doing all this. He doesn't care much for the changes in chitrahaar either, according to this article.

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9. Kovind testified, vouching for then BJP party president Bangaru Laxman, when Laxman was facing corruption charges. Laxman was found guilty, and this has cast suspicion on Kovind's testimony.

10. When leading the oath swearing ceremony, he corrected Tej Pratap (Lalu Prasad's son) twice, as he fumbled, and made him take the oath again.

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