Draupadi Murmu elected India’s 15th president

GBNews24 Desk//

Draupadi Murmu, a tribal woman, has been elected as India’s 15th president, report agencies.

Many hope her tenure will help India’s marginalized Indigenous population.

Draupadi Murmu was India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) presidential candidate.

She hails from the eastern Odisha state and had served as governor of Jharkhand.

Around 4,800 members of India’s parliament and legislative assembly cast their votes to elect the 15th president.

BJP candidate Draupadi Murmu has defeated the opposition nominee Yashwant Sinha.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP controls enough seats in federal and state legislatures to push its favoured candidate. Murmu is also likely to receive the support of other regional parties in state assemblies, political analysts estimate.

India’s Constitution makes the president the nominated head of state, while vesting all the real powers in the prime minister and council of ministers — the elected representatives of the people.

A long political career

Murmu belongs to the forest dependent Santhal tribe of Odisha. The tribe is spread over four states and is India’s largest scheduled tribe after the Bhils and Gonds.

Over 84 million people belonging to 698 communities spread across India are identified as members of scheduled tribes. They continue to be marginalized —socially, economically and culturally. Tribes are generally poor, and lack access to healthcare and education in remote villages.

Murmu started out as a teacher before entering state politics. She has been a legislator twice, on a BJP ticket, in 2000 and 2009.

In 2015, Murmu was appointed as the first female governor of the eastern state of Jharkhand, holding the position until July 2021.