Draupadi Murmu Becomes 15th President Of India
Droupadi Murmu (née Tudu, born 20 June 1958) is an Indian politician who is the president-elect of India. She is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). She is the first person belonging to the indigenous, scheduled tribe community to be elected President of India. Prior to her presidency she served as the ninth Governor of Jharkhand between 2015 and 2021, and held various portfolios in the cabinet of Government of Odisha between 2000 to 2004.
Before entering politics, she worked as a junior assistant in the State Irrigation and Power Department from 1979 to 1983, and then as a teacher at Sri Aurobindo Integral Education Centre at Rairangpur until 1997.
In June 2022, the BJP nominated Murmu as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)’s presidential candidate for the 2022 election. She was elected president in July 2022, becoming the country’s youngest president and the first to be born after India’s independence.
The NDA’s presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu emerged victorious in the presidential election by bagging a total of 6,76,803 votes over her rival Yashwant Sinha who polled 3,80,177 votes.
Making an official announcement after the fourth round of counting, Returning Officer P C Mody declared Murmu as the winner with 64.03 percent votes. Sinha got 36 percent of the valid votes polled.
Murmu bagged votes from a total of 2824 electors, including 540 MPs, while her rival Sinha got votes of 1,877 electors including 208 MPs in the election.
There were a total of 4809 electors, including 776 MP with total vote value of 10,72,377, but votes of 53 electors including the maximum of 15 MPs were declared invalid in the election held on July 18.
“In my capacity as Returning Officer, I declare Droupadi Murmu as President of India,” said Mody while declaring the final result of counting.
A sizeable number of MLAs from across state assemblies crossvoted in support of President elect Draupadi Murmu, defying their parties’ stated support to Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha, sources said on Thursday.
BJP sources said around 125 MLAs from different assemblies crossvoted in her support.
Counting of votes also suggests that Murmu was the beneficiary of crossvoting from 17 MPs. Assam, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh assemblies witnessed a significant number of Opposition MLAs voting for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance’s candidate.
Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha on Thursday congratulated Draupadi Murmu on her win in the presidential poll and said he hopes that as the 15th president she functions as the “custodian of the Constitution” without fear or favour. NDA nominee Murmu crossed the 50 percent mark after the third round of counting to emerge victorious in the poll over her rival Sinha.
In a statement, Sinha also expressed concern over the country’s situation, saying India has never seen “political corruption of such magnitude”, and this, coupled with the “poisonous politics of polarisation”, poses a grave danger to democracy and communal harmony.
Congratulating Murmu, he said, “I hope -- indeed, every Indian hopes -- that as the 15th President of India she functions as the Custodian of the Constitution without fear or favour.
I join my fellow countrymen in extending best wishes to her.” He thanked the leaders of the Opposition parties for choosing him as their consensus candidate in this election.
(Courtesy: https://www.cnbctv18.com/)
