Droupadi Murmu is the first-ever person from the Tribal community to be elected as the President of India. Murmu is the first person from Odisha and only the second woman after Pratibha Patil to occupy this post. She is the youngest and first individual to have been born after India’s independence in 1947, elected to this post. Prior to her presidency she served as the ninth Governor of Jharkhand between 2015 and 2021, and held various portfolios in the cabinet of Government of Odisha between 2000 to 2004. Before entering politics, she worked as a junior assistant in the State Irrigation and Power Department from 1979 to 1983, and then as a teacher at Sri Aurobindo Integral Education Centre at Rairangpur till 1997.
She lost both her sons and her husband several years back. She has a daughter Itishri Murmu who works at UCO bank in Odisha. Murmu is a keen practitioner of the meditation techniques of the Brahma Kumaris, a movement she embraced after she lost her loved ones. Around 13 years ago Murmu first got connected with the Brahma Kumari Sansthan in Mount Abu in Rajasthan.
Droupadi Murmu travelled the country, campaigning for the election. Her victory run appeared certain with support from a section of opposition parties – the BJD, Shiv Sena, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, YSR Congress, BSP, TDP, boosting her numbers. Some of these parties had earlier supported the candidature of the joint opposition candidate, Yashwant Sinha