Who is Draupadi Murmu: Meet the Jharkhand Governor who could be India’s next President

Pranab Mukherjee’s tenure as President will complete on July 24. He took charge as the President of India in July 2012, defeating the NDA candidate, late PA Sangma.

Written by: Surabhi Shaurya

Updated: June 14, 2017, 3:53 PM IST

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New Delhi: As the race for upcoming Presidential election is round the corner, many prominent names like LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Sumitra Mahajan and Rajinikanth are floating in media but one name which has raised many eyebrows is Draupadi Murmu, the present governor of Jharkhand. If reports are to be believed, Murmu is one of the strongest names, who could take over President Pranab Mukherjee.

Who is Draupadi Murmu? 

Hailing from Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district, Murmu comes from a tribal community. She started her career as an assistant teacher in  Shri Aravindo Integral Education and Research. She also worked as a junior assistant in Irrigation department.

Murmu’s political journey: 

Draupadi Murmu’s political journey began in 1997 when she joined Odisha politics. She got Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket from Rairangpur in Mayurbhanj and became MLA twice. Till 2009 she was the National Executive Member of the Scheduled Tribes Morcha of the BJP.

• From 2000 to 2004 during BJP-BJP coalition government in Odisha, Murmu held many ministerial portfolios like Fisheries and Animal Resources department along with Commerce and Transport.

• In 2007, Odisha Assembly felicitated Murmu with Nilakantha Award for best MLA of the year .

• From 2002 to 2009, she also served as BJP district president of Mayurbhan and in 2015, Murmu was sworn in as the first woman Governor of Jharkhand.

Murmu’s personal life: 

Unlike political journey, Draupadi Murmu’s personal life has been full of tragedies. She was married to Shyam Charan Murmu and the couple had two sons and one daughter. But she lost her husband and two sons very early.

What would happen if Draupadi Murmu becomes the next President of India? 

As per the political experts, if Draupadi Murmu becomes the next President, she can prove to be a great help for the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in grabbing tribal vote share in upcoming 2019 general elections. Talking to leading daily Times Of India, a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said,”By picking a tribal woman, the Narendra Modi government can make all the right noises in consolidating the tribal vote base in the entire country. Moreover, it will give a fillip to Modi’s rant of eastern India focus.”

If she becomes NDA’s final choice for presidential poll, it would be difficult for Biju Janata Dal (BJD) to oppose her, as Murmu share a good rapport with Naveen Patnaik.

Presidential election 2017: 

The process of filing nominations for the July 17 presidential poll began today with the Election Commission issuing a notification in this regard. The nomination process will continue till June 28. While leaders of opposition parties will hold their meeting this afternoon to discuss their joint strategy and come up with a consensus candidate, Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah has constituted a three-member committee comprising Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and Venkaiah Naidu which will hold consultations with the NDA allies and the opposition on the issue.
Pranab Mukherjee’s tenure as President will complete on July 24. He took charge as the President of India in July 2012, defeating the NDA candidate, late PA Sangma. As per the reports of PTI, Mukherjee had secured 7.13 lakh votes as against 3.15 lakh polled by Sangma.