Who’s Draupadi Murmu, the NDA’s presidential candidate?

Hailing from Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district, Murmu started out as a teacher before entering state politics. She has been an MLA twice, on BJP ticket, from Rairangpur in Mayurbhanj (2000 and 2009). During the BJP-BJD coalition government that came to power in 2000, she held the Commerce and Transport, and, subsequently, the Fisheries and Animal Husbandry portfolios. She managed to win in 2009 even as the BJP paled against the challenge put up by the by-then estranged BJD.

Before she became an MLA, Murmu served as councillor in the Rairangpur Nagar Panchayat, after winning elections in 1997, and as vice-president of the BJP’s Scheduled Tribes Morcha. In 2015, Murmu was sworn in as the first woman Governor of Jharkhand.

In her personal life, Murmu has seen much tragedy, having lost both her husband Shyam Charan Murmu and two sons.

Smt. Droupadi Murmu Ji has devoted her life to serving society and empowering the poor, downtrodden as well as the marginalised. She has rich administrative experience and had an outstanding gubernatorial tenure. I am confident she will be a great President of our nation.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 21, 2022

Her expected win as President – with the NDA commanding 48% of the electoral vote – will be a big boost to the BJP’s tribal push. It might also bolster the party’s hopes in Odisha, where it has been struggling to increase its footprint against a dominant BJD.

Incidentally, apart from Murmu, another name that did the rounds this time had been in contention in 2017: former West Bengal governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi.