Droupadi Murmu

Droupadi Murmu

The 2022 Indian Presidential Election was 16th presidential election that was held in India to elect the President of India as the tenure of President Ram Nath Kovind was about to expire naturally. The election took place all over India on 18 July 2022 and a turnout of 99.14% was recorded.

Droupadi Murmu was born in a Santali tribal family on June 20, 1958, in Baidaposi village of Mayurbhanj district in Odisha, to Biranchi Narayan Tudu.

Both her father and grandfather were elected as sarpanch under the Panchayati Raj system.

Murmu is an arts graduate of Rama Devi Women's College.

She married Shyam Charan Murmu, a banker, who died in 2014. The couple had two sons, both of whom are dead, and a daughter. She lost her husband, two sons, mother, and a brother in a span of 7 years, from 2009 to 2015. 

Murmu joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1997 and was elected as the councilor of the Rairangpur Nagar Panchayat. Murmu became the Chairperson of Rairangpur Nagar Panchayat in 2000.

Murmu took oath as the Governor of Jharkhand on 18 May 2015, becoming the first woman Governor of Jharkhand.^[] The BJP was in power in the Jharkhand Government for most of the six-year tenure as a governor. BJP was in power in the Union Government throughout her tenure.^[15]

Ratan Tirkey, a former BJP politician, said that Murmu had not done enough to make sure that the self-governance rights granted to tribal communities were properly implemented. These rights were granted under the Fifth Schedule and the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 or PESA. Tirkey said, "Despite several requests, the then governor never exercised her powers to implement the Fifth Schedule provisions and Pesa in letter and spirit".