Droupadi Murmu, India's first tribal woman President candidate, files nomination

Besides the NDA leaders, YSR Congress' V Vijaysai Reddy and BJD leader Sasmit Patra, who are not part of the alliance, were also in Parliament to back her nomination.

New Delhi:The BJP-led NDA's nominee Droupadi Murmu on Friday filed her nomination papers for the July 18 presidential election, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi handing over the set of papers to Returning Officer P C Mody. Murmu reportedly spoke with Congress interim-President Sonia Gandhi, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee & NCP chief Sharad Pawar seeking their party's support for her candidature in the Presidential election after filing the nomination papers.

The presidential candidate was also accompanied by union ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari and Piyush Goyal, BJP president J P Nadda and several chief ministers including Yogi Adityanath, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Manohar Lal Khattar, B S Bommai, Bhupendra Patel, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Pushkar Singh Dhami, Pramod Sawant and N Biren Singh.

Besides the NDA leaders, YSR Congress' V Vijaysai Reddy and BJD leader Sasmit Patra, who are not part of the alliance, were also in Parliament to back her nomination. Chief ministers of all BJP-led states, including Uttar Pradesh's Yogi Adityanath and Gujarat's Bhupender Patel, as well as virtually the entire band of the party's women and tribal MPs and legislators, were also the signatories. AIADMK leader O Paneerselvam and JD-U's Rajiv Ranjan Singh reached Parliament early.

Every set of nominations to a president has to have 50 proposers and 50 seconders among elected representatives. If elected, Murmu will be the first tribal president and the second woman in the post after Pratibha Patil. On Wednesday evening, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik made an appeal to all MLAs of Odisha to support Murmu's candidature. Notably, Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD) is not an ally of the NDA but is often seen supporting the NDA government on crucial bills and legislature. He openly came out and endorsed the candidature of Murmu for the upcoming presidential elections that are scheduled to take place on July 18.

While addressing a press conference at the party headquarters on Monday, JP Nadda announced Droupadi Murmu as the NDA candidate for the upcoming presidential election. Nadda also said that over 20 names were discussed by the BJP Parliamentary board and all the allies of the NDA before finalising Murmu as a candidate for the presidential election.

Droupadi Murmu is all set to become the next President of India and if that comes through, she will be India's first woman tribal President and the second woman President of India since its independence. Droupadi Murmu, a former Odisha minister, is the first presidential candidate from Odisha of a major political party or alliance. She continues to break barriers and was the first woman governor of Jharkhand. She served as Jharkhand Governor from 2015 to 2021.

In 2007, the Odisha assembly honoured her with the 'Nilakantha Award' for best MLA. She served as a junior assistant in Irrigation and Power Department between 1979 and 1983. She has held several organisational posts in BJP and was vice president of state ST Morcha in 1997. The voting for the next President of India will kick start on July 18 while counting will take place on July 21.

In another development the opposition candidate for President, Yashwant Sinha will be filing his nomination for the election on June 27. Sinha will be visiting Bihar and Jharkhand for two days from Friday onwards. (With Agency inputs)