New Delhi, India (CU)_ Droupadi Murmu, the presidential nominee of the National Democratic Alliance led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, has won the 2022 presidential elections and has been elected as the 15th president of India. She will take oath on July 25, a day after the current president Ram Nath Kovind’s term expires.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Murmu at her residence in New Delhi. He tweeted, “India scripts history. A daughter of India hailing from a tribal community born in a remote part of eastern India has been elected our President!”
The 64-year-old tribal woman from Odisha, who was a former governor of Jharkhand from 2015 to 2021, will be the first tribal President of India. Murmu, who became the first female governor of Jharkhand, is now India’s second female president after Pratibha Patil. She is also the first president born in Odisha. Following four rounds of polling, Murmu earned 2,824 votes with a total value of 676,803, while Yashwant Sinha received 1,877 votes with a total value of 380,177.
PC Mody, secretary general of the Rajya Sabha, said, “In my capacity as Returning Officer duly declare that Smt. Droupadi Murmu has been duly elected as President of India”. The outgoing President Ram Nath Kovind took to Twitter to convey his wishes to Muru. He tweeted, “Heartiest congratulations and best wishes to Droupadi Murmu on being elected as the 15th President of India”.
Sinha, the opponent candidate of Murmu, conveyed his wishes on her success. Sinha tweeted, “I join my fellow citizens in congratulating Smt Droupadi Murmu on her victory in the Presidential Election 2022. India hopes that as the 15th President of the Republic she functions as the custodian of the Constitution without fear or favor.” Rahul Gandhi, the nation’s key opposition leader, tweeted, “Congratulations and best wishes to Smt. Droupadi Murmu ji on being elected as the 15th President of India”.
Murmu hails from a Santhal tribal family in the Mayurbhanj district of Odisha. Her family suffered from poverty as they lived in one of the most depressed places of the state. Despite the challenging circumstances in her family, she graduated from Bhubaneswar’s Ramadevi Women’s College. Murmu, a member of the BJP, served as an MLA in Rairangpur, Odisha. She also served as an Odisha cabinet minister. The Odisha Assembly honored her with the “Nilakantha Award” for the Best MLA of 2007. She also served as the Mayurbhanj (West) District President for the BJP.
