Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat on Saturday resigned soon after being defeated by UPA-Left nominee Pratibha Patil in the Presidential election.
Shortly after Patil was declared elected for the highest office in the country, Shekhawat drove to Rashtrapati Bhavan and submitted his resignation to President A P J Abdul Kalam.
In his brief resignation letter, the Vice President thanked Kalam for his cooperation and guidance.
''I hereby tender my resignation from the post of Vice President of India and am extremely grateful to you for the cooperation and guidance that I have always got from you,'' Shekhawat wrote.
Earlier, as news came in that Patil had won the election, the 84-year-old NDA-backed independent candidate issued a statement saying he accepted his defeat with ''all humility''.
He telephoned Patil to congratulate the UPA-Left nominee, who defeated him by a huge margin of over three lakh vote value in the electoral college of around ten lakh.
In the statement, he said he would continue to ''work for the uplift of poor and deprived sections of the society so that they can enjoy their fundamental rights with dignity''.
After resigning, Shekhawat gave up his official vehicle and returned from Rashtrapati Bhavan in his personal car.
The President-elect when she was still the Governor of Rajasthan.
Pratibha Patil has won the 12th Presidential Elections of the Republic of India, becoming the first woman president of the second most populous country in the world.

Patil, 72, previously governor of the state of Rajasthan, had support from the governing coalition. She won approximately two thirds of the vote, almost double the number of votes of her nearest rival Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, who resigned as Vice-President after losing the poll.

Patil was a last-minute candidate who appeared when the coalition that leads the congress and the communist allies could not choose a common candidate. The supporters of Patil hope that her election could bring to the spotlight, problems that affect women in India, such as the high murder rate or domestic violence and abuse.

More than 4,500 members of the Parliament of India and state Legislative Assemblies were eligible to vote for the largely ceremonial office.

Patil was recently the centre of controversy after allegations that a bank gave out cheap loans to her relatives, and for her controversial statements about the Muslim veil.

The President-elect will succeed the 11th President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, an engineer and scientist. She is expected to be sworn in on July 25 in the Central Hall of Parliament.

The President of India, also called Rashtrapati, is the head of state and first citizen of India and the Supreme Commander of the Indian armed forces. The President's role is largely ceremonial. The powers of the President of India are comparable to those of the monarch of the United Kingdom. The real executive authority in India is vested in the Council of Ministers, headed by the Prime Minister. In 1966, Indira Gandhi became the first and to date the only female prime minister of India.