Mrs Draupadi Murmu- First Tribal President of India

Draupadi Murmu (born 20 June 1958) is a veteran member of the political party BJP (Bhartiya Janta Party) . She is the most well-known and respected tribal leader from Odisha . She also served as the Honorable governor of Jharkhand between the years 2015 and 2021. The BJP-led NDA government (National Democratic Alliance) officially nominated her for the candidature for the presidential election in 2022 wherein she is contesting against the former minister of External Affairs of india Mr Yashwant Sinha, the opposition’s candidate whom she defeated in a margin of 67 votes . The term of India’s current president,Shri Ram Nath Kovind, which ends on July 25, that is when the new president Mrs Draupadi Murmu is set to take the oath of office on the very same day.

She is the first woman belonging to a Scheduled Tribe (ST) community to be elected as President of India.Mrs Murmu is also the first person from Odisha and only the second woman after Mrs Pratibha Patil to embrace the most prestigious post of India. She is also the youngest and first individual born after India’s independence in 1947 to have been elected to this post .

Personal life

Droupadi Murmu was born in a tribal Santali family on June 20, 1958, in an remote area namely Baidaposi of Rairangpur situated in Mayurbhanj district in Odisha, to Mr Biranchi Narayan Tudu. Both her father and grandfather were then elected as village head under the Panchayati Raj system. Her maternal grandmother inspired her to study and hence she became an arts graduate of Rama Devi Women’s College. She married Shyam Charan Murmu, a banker by profession, who died in cardiac arrest in the year 2014. They had two sons, both of are no more, and a daughter namely Itishri Murmu. She lost her husband, two sons, mother, and a brother in a span of 7 years, from 2009 to 2015.So to overcome the grief, she spiritually associated herself with the Brahma Kumaris and practised yoga and meditation.

Teaching career

Before joining active politics, she also served Odisha government as a junior assistant in the State Irrigation and Power Department from 1979 to 1983, and then also as a teacher at Sri Aurobindo Integral Education Centre at Rairangpur till 1997 without any remuneration.

Political career

Droupadi Murmu is a very popular tribal leader from Rairangpur in the Mayurbhanj district in Odisha. Her political career started in 1997 when She joined Bhartiya Janta Party in the year 1997 and then in the same year she was elected as a councillor of the Rairangpur Nagar Panchayat. She was also elected as the Vice-Chairperson of Rairangpur NAC unanimously. She swiftly won the NAC election as she was quite favoured by the people of that area and well-liked for her various social work.

She also served as the National Vice President of BJP’s Scheduled Tribe Morcha. She was elected as the MLA on the BJP ticket twice from the constituency of Rairangpur in the year 2000 and 2009. She also served as a former minister in the state of Odisha and won the MLA candidature from the constituency of Rairangpur in Mayurbhanj. In the year 2007, for her outstanding contribution to her constituency, she was conferred Nilkantha Award for the Best MLA by Odisha Legislative Assembly.

Governor of Jharkhand

She also served as the ninth Governor of Jharkhand from the year 2015 to 2021. She was also the first woman and tribal leader from Odisha to be selected for the post of Governor and She was also the first governor in Jharkhand who completed the five-year office term.

Her Credentials:

• She was very dynamic in social activist in her area and she vigorously promoted tribal women’s empowerment along with the educational and social boost of tribal populations.
• In 2016 in support of eye donation movement, she announced that she will donate her eyes after her death to the Kashyap Memorial Hospital in Ranchi.
• She also evaluated the administrative and academic functions of different universities through video conferencing in 2021.
• Reportedly she had converted the house of her in-laws into a trust and donated this to a school. She named the trust SLS after the name of her late husband and sons. The SLS trust is built in an area of 4 acres, and she also built a memorial in the school for the memory for her husband and sons.