NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu elected as 15th President of India

July 21: Droupadi Murmu is set to become the 15th President of India after crossing the 50% mark of total valid votes at the end of third round of counting. Murmu registered her win in the presidential battle against Opposition nominee Yashwant Sinha by a huge margin. Of the 3,219 valid votes counted so far, Murmu has bagged 2,161, while Sinha got 1,058.

Soon after Droupadi Murmu’s score crossed the halfway mark, Sinha took to Twitter to congratulate her over the victory. He wrote, “I join my fellow citizens in congratulating Smt Droupadi Murmu on her victory in the Presidential Election 2022. India hopes that as the 15th President of the Republic she functions as the Custodian of the Constitution without fear or favour.”

The swearing-in ceremony of the new President is scheduled to be held on 25 July after the present President Ram Nath Kovind’s tenure ends on 24 July.

Murmu, 64, is the first Adivasi and second woman to become the nation’s First Citizen and the Supreme Commander of India’s Armed Forces. Murmu was elected to two terms in the Odisha Assembly in 2000 and 2004, and served as a Minister from 2000 to 2004 in Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s BJD-BJP coalition government. She was sworn in as the first woman Governor of Jharkhand in 2015.