The NDA candidate, first tribal woman, becomes 15th President of India
Team News Riveting
New Delhi, July 21
Droupadi Murmu, a tribal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Jharkhand Governor, has been elected as the 15th President of India.
She defeated joint opposition’s candidate Yashwant Sinha. Droupadi Murmu, who will succeed Ram Nath Kovind, will be the second woman to occupy the top post in the country.
The NDA presidential candidate got 5,77,777 votes, which is more than the halfway mark of the total valid votes cast in the election on July 18. With the BJP’s dominance and support from regional parties that included BJD, BSP, Shiromani Akali Dal, Shiv Sena, and JMM, Murmu’s was already predicted to get nearly two-third of votes.
According to reports, 17 MPs from opposition parties have cross-voted in her support.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote, “India scripts history. At a time when 1.3 billion Indians are marking Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, a daughter of India hailing from a tribal community born in a remote part of eastern India has been elected our President! Congratulations to Smt. Droupadi Murmu Ji on this feat.” Smt Droupadi Murmu Ji’s life, her early struggles, her rich service and her exemplary success motivates each and every Indian. She has emerged as a ray of hope for our citizens, especially the poor, marginalised and the downtrodden, he added.
Meanwhile, celebrations in Droupadi Murmu’s native village and across the nation have begun. Murmu’s birthplace, in-law’s village, Rairangpur Assembly constituency and district headquarters town Baripada have been decked up with festoons, banners and colourful gates to celebrate the occasion. The people of Rairangpur have prepared 20,000 ladoos for distribution.
Murmu, whose political career spans over 20 years, was born in a Santal Tribal family on June 20, 1958, in village Uparbeda of district Mayurbhanj. She pursued Bachelor of Arts degree from Ramadevi Women’s College in Bhubaneswar and then worked as a Junior Assistant in Irrigation and Power Department of Odisha government from 1979 to 1983.
In 1994, she joined as a teacher at Sri Aurobindo Integral Education Centre, Rairangpur, and continued serving at the institute till 1997. Murmu was later elected as a councillor in 1997 and became the vice-chairperson of the Rairangpur NAC. She also became the MLA from the same constituency.
In 2000, she became Minister of State (Independent Charge) at the Transport and Commerce Department in the BJD-BJP coalition government in Odisha and served till 2004. She was a national executive member of BJP’s ST Morcha from 2002 to 2009.
She was appointed as Governor of Jharkhand in 2015 and she continued till 2021. She was the first woman Governor for the state and the first female tribal leader to serve as a Governor in any Indian state.
The newly elected President Droupadi Murmu is supposed to take the oath of office on July 25, a day after earlier President Ram Nath Kovind is scheduled to vacate the office.
