With President Pranab Mukherjee all set to leave his office on July 25, the race for the Presidential seat has already begun. Though the manes of prominent personalities like LK Advani, Sumitra Mahajan, Sushma Swaraj and Murli Manohar Joshi have been making rounds since a long time, one name that is being largely speculated to take over from Mukherjee, is Draupadi Murmu.
Many may have not heard this name and it may have come as a surprise to you as well, but Murmu is the present governor of Jharkhand, who hails from a tribal community in Odisha. According to a report in Better India, Murmu has had a very illustrious career graph, spanning two decades.
If chosen, she will be the very first person from a tribal community to be the President of India.
With her name doing the rounds for the prestigious post, here’re a few things you need to know about Draupadi Murmu:
- Notably, she is the first woman to hold the Governor’s post in Jharkhand. She took charge in May 2015 at the age of 59.
- Draupadi Murmu is also the first woman leader hailing from Odisha to be appointed Governor of an Indian state.
- Daughter of late Biranchi Narayan Tudu, Murmu started her political career in 1997 as the Councillor in Rairangpur district of Odisha.
- She was also made the national executive member of the BJP ST Morcha, or the Scheduled Tribes wing of the saffron party.
- An alumnus of Rama Devi Women’s College, Bhubaneswar, she holds a Bachelor of Arts degree and had worked as an honorary assistant professor in the Shri Aurobindo Integral Education and Research, Rairangpur.
- From 2000 to 2004, Murmu was a minister with many important portfolios during the Naveen Patnaik-led BJP government.
- In 2007, she was honoured with the Pandit Nilakantha Award by the Odisha Legislative Assembly, for exemplary services for the society as an MLA.
