Draupadi Murmu is all set to be the 15th President of India, the first Tribal President, and the country’s second female President.

Deccan Herald

She won the race by a significant margin against her opposing candidate Yashwant Sinha. Her win was expected – with the NDA commanding 48% of the electoral vote – a big boost to the BJP’s tribal push. Her win might also bolster the party’s hopes in Odisha, where it has been struggling to increase its footprint against a dominant BJD.

PM Modi met her and congratulated her on the big win.

Earlier, in a series of tweets PM Modi had talked about Murmu’s service to society and nation.

India.com

Hailing from a tribal community in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district, Murmu started out as a teacher before entering state politics. With a BJP ticket, she has been elected as MLA twice in 2000 and 2009, from Rairangpur in Mayurbhanj. In 2015, Murmu was sworn in as the first woman Governor of Jharkhand and the first Odia tribal leader to be made Governor of any state.

India Ahead

Murmu, a grassroots politician, has many firsts to her credit.

In 2017, she failed the erstwhile BJP government’s plan to amend land tenancy acts in Jharkhand. She had returned the bills introduced to amend the Chhotanagpur Tenancy (CNT) Act and Santhal Pargana Tenancy (SPT) Act. Tribals of Jharkhand had aggressively opposed the erstwhile BJP government’s proposed amendments to the CNT and SPT Acts.

Twitter

She was once part of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) Cabinet in Odisha when Navin Patnaik formed the government with the support of the BJP. BJD’s Naveen Patnaik is backing the NDA candidate.

Murmu will be breaking a lot of barriers and creating many more firsts. She is the first Tribal President, second-ever woman President and the first President to be born in Independent India

Sambad English

Murmu was first considered a contender when President Pranab Mukherjee was set to leave office in 2017. However, Ramnath Kovind made the cut instead.

Draupadi was born on 20th June 1958 in Baidaposi village of Mayurbhanj district in Odisha. Her father’s name is Biranchi Narayan Tudu. She belongs to Santal family, a tribal ethnic group.

Having been born into a tribal family that was battling with poverty in one of the country’s most remote and underdeveloped districts, her childhood had been full of challenges. Murmu was married to Shyam Charan Murmu. The couple had two sons and a daughter. She experienced the loss of both her husbands and her two sons.

India Tomorrow

Overcoming all odds, she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Arts from Ramadevi Women’s College in Bhubaneswar. Before entering politics, she served as an honourary assistant professor in the Shri Aurobindo Integral Education and Research, Rairangpur. Later, she was appointed as a junior assistant in the irrigation and power department in the Odisha government.

During the Bharatiya Janata Party and Biju Janata Dal coalition government in Odisha, she was the Minister of State with independent charge for Commerce and Transport from March 6, 2000 to August 6, 2002 and Fisheries and Animal Resources Development from August 6, 2002 to May 16, 2004. She was former Odisha Minister and an MLA from Rairangpur assembly constituency in the years 2000 and 2004.

She served as an MLA in the Odisha Legislative Assembly twice. She served as Minister of State. In 2007, she was bestowed the Nilakantha Award for Best MLA by the Odisha Legislative Assembly. She has served as the National Executive Member and State President of the BJP’s ST Morcha.

Economic Times

She won in 2009, even as the BJP paled against the estranged BJD. Before she became an MLA, Murmu joined the BJP in 1997 and was elected as a councilor in the Rairangpur Nagar Panchayat.

Murmu filed her nomination for the presidential election on June 25. The voting for the Presidential poll took place on July 18 and they were counted on July 21.