Droupadi Murmu: Age, net worth, husband, children, qualification, awards and more

Droupadi Murmu is India’s 15th President. She defeated opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha to become the first tribal woman to take the top job. 

Droupadi Murmu was born on June 20, 1958, in Uparbeda village of Mayurbhanj district in Odisha. She was born in a Santhali tribal family and married Shyam Charan Murmu, a banker who died in 2014. The couple had two sons, both of who passed away, and a daughter, Itishri Murmu.

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Droupadi Murmu completed her BA ( bachelor of arts) at Ramadevi’s Women College in Bhubaneswar. She then started working as a school teacher before entering state politics. Murmu also worked as an assistant professor at the Shri Aurobindo Integral Education and Research Institute, Rairangpur, and as a junior assistant in the Department of Irrigation and Energy in the Government of Odisha.

She joined the BJP in 1997 and was elected councillor of the Rairangpur Nagar Panchayat. She served as the chairperson of Rairangpur Nagar Panchayat in 2000. Murmu also served as a national vice-president of the BJP Scheduled Tribes Morcha.

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Draupadi Murmu won the Rairangpur seat in the Odisha assembly elections in 2000 and 2004, also serving as a minister in the coalition government led by the Biju Janata Dal that the BJP joined. She received the Nilkantha Award for best MLA for Odisha Legislative Assembly in 2007.

She contested the 2009 general election from Mayurbhanj in her state and lost. In 2014, she lost the assembly election from Rairangpur.

On May 18, 2015, Murmu became the first woman tribal leader from Odisha to become the Governor of Jharkhand. She was the first female tribal leader from Odisha to be appointed as a governor of an Indian state. She was the first Jharkhand Governor to finish a full term.

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In June 2022, Droupadi Murmu was nominated by BJP as the National Democratic Alliance candidate for the President of India in the 2022 elections. She visited Shiv Sena of Maharashtra, BSP of Uttar Pradesh, BJD of Odisha, JMM Party of Jharkhand, JDS of Karnataka, NE states and many others to seek extended support from them.

In the last election affidavit that Droupadi Murmu filed in 2014, she declared assets worth Rs 2.09 crore and liabilities of Rs 14 lakh.