Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has expressed his happiness over the BJP’s selection of Draupadi Murmu as the NDA candidate for the post of President.
Patnaik said she was glad when Prime Minister Modi had mentioned about Murmu’s choice for the top post during their recent meeting in New Delhi.
Notably, former Jharkhand Governor Murmu is the first woman tribal leader to contest for the country’s highest Constitutional post. As a Governor, she was the first tribal woman.
After she completed her tenure as Governor, she left the Jharkhand Raj Bhavan for her village in the Rairangpur area in Odisha on July 12, 2021 and has been living there since then.
The choice of Murmu for the top post is considered to be a BJP strategy to make an impact on the tribal community.
Murmu was a two-time MLA and a Minister in Odisha before being appointed as the Jharkhand Governor. Her five-year term as Governor was to end on May 18, 2020 but was automatically extended due to non-appointment of a new Governor due to the Covid pandemic. Murmu, who was born on June 20, 1958 in a Santhal family, worked as an Assistant Teacher at the Sri Aurobindo Integral Education and Research, Rairangpur, and as a Junior Assistant in the State Irrigation Department. She began her political career in 1997. She was elected as a Councillor of Rairangpur in 1997.