Droupadi Murmu: India’s first tribal president
Draupadi Murmu (born 20 June 1958) is an Indian politician and Bharatiya Janata Party member. In the 2022 election, she is the official presidential candidate of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. Murmu is the second person from a scheduled tribe to be nominated for the position of President of India.
Personal life
Draupadi Murmu was born on June 20, 1958, into a Santali tribal family in Uparbeda village, Mayurbhanj district, Odisha, to Biranchi Narayan Tudu. Her father and grandfather were both Panchayati Raj village chiefs.
Draupadi Murmu married banker Shyam Charan Murmu, who died in 2014. The couple had a daughter and two sons, both of whom died.
Her career in politics is
Murmu joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 1997 and was elected to the Rairangpur Nagar Panchayat council. Murmu was elected Chairman of Rairangpur Nagar Panchayat in 2000. She was also the Bharathiya Janata Party’s Scheduled Tribes Morcha’s national vice-president. She was the Minister of State with Independent Charge for Commerce and Transportation during the Bharatiya Janata Party and Biju Janata Dal coalition government in Odisha from March 6, From August 6, 2002 to May 16, 2004, Fisheries and Animal Resources Development was responsible. Between 2000 and 2004, she was an MLA in Odisha’s Rairangpur Assembly constituency. In 2007, the Odisha Legislative Assembly bestowed the Nilkantha Award on her as the best MLA.
Jharkhand’s Governor, Murmu, took the oath of office as Governor of Jharkhand on May 18, 2015, becoming the state’s first female governor. She was Odisha’s first female tribal leader to be appointed as governor of an Indian state.
As Governor in 2017, Murmu refused to sign a bill approved by the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly that sought to amend the Chhotanagpur Tenancy Act of 1908 and the Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act of 1949. The bill sought to grant tribals the right to make commercial use of their land while ensuring that land ownership does not change. Murmu demanded an explanation from the Raghubar Das-led Bharatiya Janata Party government about the changes it planned for tribals’ well-being.
Presidential election in 2022
Murmu was nominated by the BJP in June 2022 as the National Democratic Alliance’s candidate for President of India in the following month’s election. Murmu is the second person from a scheduled tribe to be nominated for the position of President of India (the first being Purno Sangma).
