Former Jharkhand Governor and tribal leader Droupadi Murmu was on Tuesday named the BJP-led NDA's Presidential candidate for the upcoming polls. The decision was taken during a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parliamentary board meeting held earlier in the day. BJP president J P Nadda announced her name at a press conference following a meeting of the party's top brass.
Soon after Droupadi Murmu was named NDA's Presidential candidate, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday expressed confidence that she will be a "great President" and said the former Jharkhand governor's understanding of policy matters and compassionate nature will greatly benefit the country.
"Droupadi Murmu Ji has devoted her life to serving society and empowering the poor, downtrodden as well as the marginalised," PM Modi said on Twitter.
Who Is Droupadi Murmu? NDA's Choice For Presidential Candidate
Murmu (64), a former Jharkhand governor, will be the first tribal woman to occupy the top constitutional post if she is elected, a strong possibility as numbers are stacked in favour of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
With the development, Murmu became the first woman tribal leader to contest for the country's highest constitutional post.
After the completion of her tenure, she left the Jharkhand Raj Bhavan for her village in Odisha's Rairangpur on July 12, 2021, and has been living there since then. Murmu has a rich experience of more than six years as a Governor of Jharkhand.
She had served twice as an MLA and once as a BJP minister in the BJD-led Odisha cabinet and was also awarded the Neelkanth Award for Best Legislator by the Odisha Legislative Assembly.
Her five-year term as governor was to end on May 18, 2020, but was automatically extended due to the non-appointment of a new Governor due to the ongoing Covid pandemic.
Born on June 20, 1958, in Odisha in a simple Santhal tribal family, Murmu started her political career in 1997. Before joining politics, Murmu worked as an honorary assistant teacher at Sri Aurobindo Integral Education and Research, Rairangpur and as a junior assistant in the Irrigation Department.