If elected, Odisha's prominent activist Draupadi Murmu will become India's second female President. A great achievement indeed!
BJP national president JP Nadda, while announcing NDA’s prospective Presidential candidate, said, “During BJP’s parliamentary board meeting. After discussing around 20 names, we felt that the new President of India should hail from the East, be a woman, and belong to the Adivasi community."
Draupadi Murmu has a long teaching and political career. She has also served as MLA and a minister in Bju Janta Dal and BJP’s coalition government.
She was also the Jharkhand Governor from 2015 to 2021.Draupadi Murmu was raised in Mayubhanj, Odisha. She graduated from Rama Devi Women's College, Bhubaneswar.
She joined BJP in 1997 after working as a junior assistant at the irrigation division of the government of Odisha and as an assistant professor at the Shri Aurobindo Integral Education and Research.
She was chosen vice-chairman of the region and a councillor for Rairangpur in the same year. She represented Rairangpur in the 2000 Assembly elections.
She won the election and was appointed as a minister in the state's BJD-BJP coalition government.
Till 2004, when she was re-elected as an MLA, she served as minister. She oversaw several portfolios, including fisheries, animal husbandry, transportation, and commerce.
She remained devoted to the party throughout this time, serving as the state president of the BJP Scheduled Tribe Morcha from 2006 to 2009.
She was also the district president of the BJP unit in Mayurbhanj. She was appointed Jharkhand Governor in 2015.
Draupadi Murmu, if elected, would stand tall in this male-dominated arena of Indian politics. Not only would she be representative of the women population, but also the tribal population.
India ranks 148 globally in terms of representation of women in government and Parliament. However, women representatives are only 11.8% (64 MPS) of the 542 lok sabha seats. Politics has often been interpreted as a ‘male bastion’, and women are held as incapable of handling topics of finances, administration etc.
India has only seen a few women as President and PrimeMinister.
