Droupadi Murmu takes oath as India's 15th President with many firsts

NEW DELHI: Droupadi Murmu on Monday took oath as the 15th President of India. She is the first President of the country who was born in Independent India. With the nomination, the 64-year-old became the youngest leader to become India's President.
Murmu is also the first tribal leader to be elected to the highest constitutional post of the country. The former Jharkhand governor is the second woman to assume the nation's top office.
Droupadi Murmu, who hails from Uparbeda village of Mayurbhanj district in Odisha, was administered the oath of office of the President by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana in the Central Hall of Parliament.
Noting that she was the first President to be born after Independence, Murmu said it was her good fortune that she has assumed the position at a time when the country is celebrating 'Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav' to mark the 75th anniversary of its freedom.
Murmu recalled that she grew up in a small tribal village where getting primary education was like a dream and she went on to become the first daughter in the village to enrol for college education. "It is a tribute to Indian democracy's strength that I have now reached the post of President and am proud to be leading such a progressive country," President Murmu said during her first address to the county after taking oath.
She received a ceremonial salute at the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan after being sworn in as the 15th President of India. On July 22, the NDA's presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu was officially declared as the 15th President of the country after the conclusion of the counting of votes.
Murmu received 2,824 votes with a value of 6,76,803 while her opponent Sinha secured 1,877 votes with a value of 3,80,177. A total of 4,809 MPs and MLAs cast their votes in the polling that took place on July 18.
Secretary General of Rajya Sabha and the Returning Officer for Presidential Election 2022, PC Mody handed over the certificate to President-elect Droupadi Murmu at her residence in Delhi.
Ahead of the oath ceremony, Murmu visited the memorial of Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat and paid her respects to Mahatma Gandhi.
Born in a Santali tribal family on June 30, 1958, Murmu completed her education from Bhubaneswar and went on to work first as a junior assistant in the State Irrigation and Power Department from 1979 to 1983.
After the short stint as a clerk, she became a teacher at Sri Aurobindo Integral Education Centre at Rairangpur till 1997. Murmu commenced her journey in the field of politics in 1997 by joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
She was first elected as the councillor of the Rairangpur Nagar Panchayat and then went on to become the chairperson of the same panchayat in 2000. Later, she also served as the national vice president of the BJP Scheduled Tribe Morcha.
Murmu became a member of the council of ministers in the BJP and Biju Janata Dal coalition government in Odisha, first becoming the minister of state with independent charge for commerce and transportation from March 2000 to August 2022 and then minister for fisheries and animal resources development from August 2002 to May 2004.
A legislator from the Rairangpur assembly constituency in the years 2000 and 2004, she was conferred Nilkhantha Award for the best MLA by the Odisha assembly in 2007.
In 2015, Murmu became the first woman governor of Jharkhand.
Murmu devoted her life to serving the society, empowering the poor, downtrodden and marginalized sections of the society.
- With agency inputs