• Droupadi Murmu scripted history by becoming India’s first tribal President, defeating Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha.

• NDA nominee Murmu, 64, won by an overwhelming margin against Sinha after receiving over 64 per cent valid votes in a day-long counting of ballots of MPs and MLAs, comprising the electoral college, to succeed Ram Nath Kovind to become the country’s 15th President.

• After the end of the counting process, returning officer P.C. Mody declared Murmu as the winner and said that she got 6,76,803 votes against Sinha’s 3,80,177 votes.

• She will be the first President to be born after Independence and the youngest to occupy the top post. She is also the second woman to become the President after Pratibha Patil.

From a junior assistant to India’s President

• Born on June 20, 1958, Murmu catapulted into the national spotlight after being picked as the ruling NDA’s presidential nominee.

• Hailing from north Odisha’s district of Mayurbhanj, she started her career as a junior assistant in the state secretariat in Bhubaneswar in the water resources department, after completing her graduation in arts at the Rama Devi College, which is now a university.

• Born in the Santhal community, Murmu began her political career as a councillor in Rairangpur Nagar Panchayat in 1997 and rose through the ranks to become a minister in the Odisha government in 2000 and later the governor of Jharkhand in 2015.

• A two-term former MLA from Rairangpur, Murmu held on to her Assembly seat in 2009 when the BJD had snapped ties with the BJP weeks ahead of the state elections which were swept by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

• Murmu also holds the distinction of becoming the first woman governor of Jharkhand. 

• She has served as an honorary assistant teacher in the Shri Aurobindo Integral Education Centre in Rairangpur.

• Murmu was awarded the Nilkanth Award for the Best MLA of the year in 2007 by the Odisha Legislative assembly.

• She has diverse administrative experience having handled ministries such as transport, commerce, fisheries and animal husbandry in the Odisha government.

• In the BJP, Murmu was the vice president and later president of the Scheduled Tribe Morcha in Odisha. She was elected as the district president of Mayurbhanj (West) unit of the BJP in 2010 and re-elected in 2013. She was also named as a member of the BJP National Executive (ST Morcha) the same year.

• She held the post of district president till April 2015 when she was appointed as the governor of Jharkhand.

Former Presidents of India

• Dr.Rajendra Prasad - January 26, 1950 to May 13, 1962

• Dr.S.Radhakrishnan - May 13, 1962 to May 13, 1967

• Dr.Zakir Husain - May 13, 1967 - May 3, 1969

• V.V.Giri - August 24, 1969 - August 24, 1974

• Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed - August 24, 1974 - February 11, 1977

• B.D.Jatti - February 11, 1977 to July 25, 1977

• N.Sanjiva Reddy - July 25, 1977 to July 25, 1982

• Giani Zail Singh - July 25, 1982 to July 25, 1987

• R.Venkataraman - July 25, 1987 to July 25, 1992

• Dr.Shankar Dayal Sharma - July 25, 1992 to July 25, 1997

• K.R.Narayanan - July 25, 1997 to July 25, 2002

• Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam - July 25, 2002 to July 24, 2007

• Pratibha Devisingh Patil - July 25, 2007 to July 24, 2012

• Pranab Mukherjee - July 25, 2012 to July 25, 2017

• Ram Nath Kovind - July 25, 2017 - July 2022.

Additional read:

Presidential election in India

The Office of the President is the highest elective office in the country. Under Article 324 of the Constitution of India, the authority to conduct elections to the Office of President is vested in the Election Commission of India. As per Article 62 of the Constitution of India, an election to fill the vacancy caused by the expiration of the term of office of the outgoing President is required to be completed before the expiration of the term.

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