Here’s all you need to know about India’s 15th President

Hyderabad: National Democratic Alliance (NDA)’s candidate Draupadi Murmu is all set to be the 15th President of India as she won the race for presidential elections against Opposition’s Yashwant Sinha on Thursday. Hailing from Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district, Murmu will be the first tribal President of India and only the second woman President after Pratibha Patil. […]

Hyderabad: National Democratic Alliance (NDA)’s candidate Draupadi Murmu is all set to be the 15th President of India as she won the race for presidential elections against Opposition’s Yashwant Sinha on Thursday.

Hailing from Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district, Murmu will be the first tribal President of India and only the second woman President after Pratibha Patil. Read along to know everything about the 15th President of India:

She graduated from Ramadevi Women’s College in Bhubaneswar with a Bachelor’s degree in Arts, and served as a junior assistant in the irrigation and power department in the Odisha government between 1979 and 1983. She then worked as a teacher at Sri Aurobindo Integral Education Centre at Rairangpur till 1997.

Born in the Santhal community, Murmu began her political career in 1997 when she was elected as a (Bharatiya Janata Party) BJP councillor in the Rairangpur Notified Area Council. She later became an MLA from the same constituency before being sworn in as the first female Governor of Jharkhand in 2015.

She held several portfolios in Odisha government’s cabinet between 2000 and 2004, under the BJP-Biju Janata Dal coalition. She was the Minister of State with Independent Charge for Commerce and Transportation, as well as the Minister of Fisheries and Animal Resources Development.

She served as vice president of the BJP and later as president of the Odisha Scheduled Tribe Morcha. She was elected as the district president of the BJP’s Mayurbhanj (West) unit in 2010 and re-elected in 2013. The same year, she was appointed to the BJP National Executive (ST Morcha). She held the post of district president till April 2015 when she was appointed as the Governor of Jharkhand.

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

Murmu is expected to take the oath on July 25, with incumbent President Ram Nath Kovind’s term ending on July 24. At the age of 64, Murmu will also be the youngest President of India.