Droupadi Murmu, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance candidate, has been elected 15th president of India.
Murmu will be the first Adivasi woman to hold the post. The 64-year-old is from Odisha and has served as the governor of Jharkhand from 2015 to 2021.
After four rounds of polling, Murmu received 2,824 votes of 6,76,803 value while Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha received 1,877 votes or 3,80,177 value, The Hindu reported. She received 64.03% of total valid votes polled.
“In my capacity as Returning Officer duly declare that Smt. Droupadi Murmu has been duly elected as President of India,” said PC Mody, secretary general of the Rajya Sabha.
Political leaders across the party lines congratulated Murmu on her expected win.
“Heartiest congratulations and best wishes to Droupadi Murmu on being elected as the 15th President of India,” outgoing President Ram Nath Kovind tweeted.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Murmu at her house in New Delhi to congratulate her.
“India scripts history,” Modi said in a tweet. “...A daughter of India hailing from a tribal community born in a remote part of eastern India has been elected our President!”
Murmu’s rival candidate, Sinha, also congratulated her on the victory.
“I join my fellow citizens in congratulating Smt Droupadi Murmu on her victory in the Presidential Election 2022,” Sinha wrote in a Tweet. “India hopes that as the 15th President of the Republic she functions as the custodian of the Constitution without fear or favour.”
More leaders congratulated Murmu:
The counting of votes to elect the 15th president of India began at 11 am on Thursday in Parliament, the Election Commission said.
Kovind’s tenure will end on July 24 and the next president will take oath on July 25. Nearly 4,800 MP and MLAs voted on Monday to elect the next president of India.
Murmu had emerged as the front runner with several Opposition parties also announcing their support for her. The Opposition parties had jointly picked former Union minister Yashwant Sinha as their candidate.
Murmu’s vote share is expected to cross 60% due to support from non-NDA parties like the Shiv Sena Biju Janata Dal, Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party, Telugu Desam Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Janata Dal (Secular), Shiromani Akali Dal, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party.
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