Droupadi Murmu, the BJP-led NDA’s Presidential candidate, is likely to become India’s first tribal president and second woman at the top-post. The 64-year-old led with 540 of the 748 votes of the Members of Parliament (MPs), while Opposition nominee Yashwant Sinha received 208 votes after the first round of counting. 

The votes are being counted in room number 63 in Parliament House, where the ballot boxes brought from all the state assemblies were kept.

Also read: Who are Santhals, tribe Droupadi Murmu belongs to?

While Murmu is set to make history, her 2022 run was not her first bid for President. In the 2017 Presidential elections, when Ram Nath Kovind won with 65.65% votes, Murmu was among the many names in the candidate list. 

Trinamool Congress leader Kunal Ghosh said that the party had proposed Droupadi Murmu’s name. However, the Congress-led opposition ultimately nominated Meira Kumar. 

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Talking to news agency PTI, Ghosh, who was an elected Rajya Sabha member in 2012, said that he had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his personal capacity, forwarding three names – Najma Heptullah, then president Pranab Mukherjee (for re-election) and Murmu.

“I had written it as a citizen of the country. I had suggested the names in my individual capacity at that time and not on behalf of TMC,” Ghosh told PTI.

He was later suspended from the party. 

However, this time, Ghosh said that he does not endorse Murmu. 

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“Murmu is the candidate from the BJP camp, and everyone has seen how the BJP tried to sow differences among people in the name of religion and how the fuel prices spiralled. Murmu is the candidate of that anti-people, communal, undemocratic, hatred-spewing BJP,” Ghosh added.

Droupadi Murmu was born in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district in 1958. She was the first governor to complete a full five-year term since Jharkhand was formed in 2000.