Who is Droupadi Murmu? India's President-elect makes history after beating Yashwant Sinha

Droupadi Murmu was declared elected as India’s 15th President defeating the Opposition’s joint candidate, Yashwant Sinha on Thursday. In Murmu, India has found its first tribal President. Also, the second woman President, after Pratibha Devisingh Patil, who held the post between 25 July 2007 and July 2012.

While the results of the fourth and final round is still awaited, after the third round, Murmu has already crossed the 50 per cent mark.  With the total value of votes of the electors being 10,86,431, the winner needed to bag at least 5,43,216 votes. After the third round of counting, it was declared that Murmu has 2161 votes of the value of 5,77,777 as against Yashwant Sinha who got 1058 votes of the value of 2,61,062. 

As Murmu is all set to succeed Ram Nath Kovind, here is all that you need to know about her

Born on June 20, 1958, to Late Biranchi Narayan Tudu, in one of Odisha's most remote and underdeveloped districts, Draupadi Murmu had a troubled childhood. Despite that, Murmu completed her education and kickstarted her professional career by serving as an Honorary Assistant teacher in Shri Aurobindo Integral Education Centre, Rairangpur, without a salary, from 1994-1997. In 1997, Murmu's stint in the political sphere began with her victory as a Councilor. Murmu was appointed the Vice-chairman of the Rairangpu National Advisory Council.

Murmu was elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket twice from the Rairangpur constituency, in 2000 and 2009. In 2007, she was awarded the 'Nilakanth Award for The Best MLA of the year 2007' by the Legislative Assembly of Odisha. During the  Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and BJP coalition government in Odisha, Murmu served as a minister in the Commerce and Transport department and subsequently in the Fisheries and Animal Resources department between 2000 and 2004.

Droupadi Murmu was sworn in as the first woman Governor of Jharkhand in the year 2015 and held the position till 2021. Even in her tenure as the Jharkhand Governor, Murmu's name goes down as the first female governor as well as the first Odia woman and tribal leader to be named governor of an Indian state and serve for the full term of her office.