- NET Web Desk
Droupadi Murmu on Monday took oath as the ’15th President of India’, becoming the nation’s first tribal and the second woman to occupy the highest constitutional post.
Murmu was administered the oath by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana in the Central Hall of Parliament.
The oath-taking ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, senior politicians from across parties, state heads, Governors and military officials among others.
The ruling National Democratic Alliance’s nominee – Droupadi Murmu and the former Jharkhand Governor defeated the opposition’s joint candidate – Yashwant Sinha by a huge margin of votes.
She consolidated her lead after the second round of counting by surpassing the 50 threshold and garnered votes of 809 MLAs out of a total of 1138 MLAs in 10 states, with a vote count of 1,05,299, while the latest update noted that Sinha attained votes from 329 MLAs with vote count of 44,276, in the second round.
Born in a Santhali tribal community, Murmu worked as a school teacher and a government clerk, prior to joining the BJP in 1997.
Murmu’s political career witnessed steady advancement; after she eventually attained the position of vice-chairperson of Rairangpur Nagar Panchayat in Odisha and served as an MLA for Rairangpur from 2000 to 2009. She also handled ministerial responsibilities in the Naveen Patnaik administration.
She became the first woman in her village to earn a college degree from Bhubaneshwar, and also held the position of state president of BJP’s Scheduled Tribe Morcha.
Murmu now became the second women president of India after Pratibha Patil; and the first woman from the tribal community to occupy the nation’s constitutional post.
