National Democratic Alliance’s candidate Droupadi Murmu is elected as India’s 15th President on Thursday, beating Opposition’s candidate Yashwant Sinha.
Murmu is the first person from the tribal community and the second woman to occupy the country’s topmost constitutional post.
She won the election by bagging a total of 6,76,803 votes over her rival Yashwant Sinha who polled 3,80,177 votes.
Making an official announcement after the fourth round of counting, Returning Officer P C Mody declared Murmu as the winner with 64.03 per cent votes. Sinha got 36 per cent of the valid votes polled.
Murmu bagged votes from a total of 2824 electors, including 540 MPs, while her rival Sinha got votes of 1,877 electors including 208 MPs in the election.
There were a total of 4809 electors, including 776 MP with a total vote value of 10,72,377, but the votes of 53 electors including the maximum of 15 MPs were declared invalid in the election held in July 18.
“In my capacity as Returning Officer, I declare Droupadi Murmu as President of India,” said Mody while declaring the final result of counting.
Among states, Murmu got the maximum votes from Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh while Sinha’s tally was highest in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.
Sources said 17 MPs from opposition parties have cross-voted in her support.
All MLAs from Andhra Pradesh and Sikkim voted in Murmu’s favour, while in Arunachal Pradesh she got votes of all legislators except for four and all of all MLA except one in Nagaland. Sinha did not get a single vote from assemblies in Andhra Pradesh, Nagaland and Sikkim.
Murmu got maximum votes of Parliamentarians and least in Kerala where she got only one vote.
Officials said the NDA candidate received two-thirds of the votes in all the earlier three rounds of counting.
Celebrations break out outside NDA presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu’s residence in Delhi as she crosses the 50% mark of the total valid votes at the end of the third round of counting in the election.
The voting ended at 5 pm at the Parliament House and at designated places in the capitals of all states besides the UTs of Puducherry and Delhi on Monday.
Of the 736 electors comprising 727 MPs and nine MLAs who were permitted by the Election Commission to vote at Parliament House, 728 electors cast their vote. This includes 719 MPs and nine MLAs. The total turnout at Parliament House was 98.91 per cent.
Incumbent President Ram Nath Kovind’s tenure ends on July 24 and Droupadi Murmu will take oath on July 25.
The opposition’s candidate Yashwant Sinha conceded his defeat and congratulated Droupadi Murmu on her victory and hoped that she functions as Custodian of the Constitution ‘without fear or favour’.
About Droupadi Murmu
Murmu has previously served as the Jharkhand Governor for six years. She was sworn in as the Governor of the state on May 18, 2015, and served it for 6 years and 48 days. However, in July 2021 she left for her native city Rairangpur (Odisha) after completing her term as the Governor of Jharkhand.
Exactly a year later, the ruling NDA alliance nominated her for the country’s highest constitutional post. Aside from the NDA, regional parties like the BJD, the YSRCP, the BSP, the AIADMK, the TDP, the JD(S), the Shiromani Akali Dal, the Shiv Sena, and the JMM supported the nomination.
Born on June 20, 1958 in Odisha to a simple Santhal tribal family, she started her political career in 1997 being elected as the Councillor of the district board in Rairangpur, Odisha.
Prior to joining politics, she had worked as an honorary assistant teacher at Sri Aurobindo Integral Education and Research, Rairangpur, and as a junior assistant in Odisha Irrigation Department before joining politics.
Murmu was elected twice as an MLA in Odisha and also got a chance to work as a Minister in the Naveen Patnaik government when the BJD-BJP coalition government was in power.
She was also awarded the Neelkanth Award for being the best legislator by the Odisha Legislative Assembly.
(With inputs from Agencies)
