Bhubaneswar: Former Jharkhand Governor Draupadi Murmu on Wednesday swept the floor of the Shiva Temple in Rairangpur of Mayurbhanj district before offering prayers after being nominated by the BJP-led NDA as its Presidential candidate.
BJP chief J.P. Nadda announced Murmu’s name yesterday after talking to all the NDA allies. June 29 is the last date for filing nomination for the Presidential poll, while voting will take place on July 18. The counting of votes will take place on July 21.
Murmu, who hails from Odisha, becomes the first woman tribal leader to contest for the country’s highest constitutional post. Before this, she also holds the record of being the first tribal woman Governor in the country.
Born on June 20, 1958, in Odisha in a simple Santhal tribal family, Murmu started her political career in 1997. She was elected councillor of the district board in Rairangpur in 1997. Prior to 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.
She has been MLA twice in Odisha and also got a chance to work as a minister in the Naveen Patnaik government when the BJP was in coalition with the Biju Janata Dal. Murmu was also awarded the Neelkanth Award for Best Legislator by the Odisha Legislative Assembly.
She was sworn in as the Governor of Jharkhand on May 18, 2015. Her five-year term as governor was to end on May 18, 2020 but was automatically extended due to non-appointment of a new Governor due to the ongoing Covid pandemic. After the completion of her tenure, she left the Jharkhand Raj Bhavan for her village in Odisha’s Rairangpur on July 12, 2021, and is living there since then.
It is pertinent to mention that the opposition parties have announced former Union minister Yashwant Sinha as their consensus candidate for the post of President.
