Droupadi Murmu, a 64-year-old teacher turned politician, will be the second woman to hold the largely ceremonial role
\n MUMBAI
\nLawmakers chose India\u2019s first president from the country\u2019s tribal communities on Thursday, which could boost the appeal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s party among marginalised groups ahead of the 2024 general election.
\nDroupadi Murmu, a 64-year-old teacher turned politician, will be the second woman to hold the largely ceremonial role as head of the republic when she takes office on July 25 at the start of a five-year term.
\nMore than 4,500 state and federal lawmakers voted in the presidential election on Monday and ballots were counted on Thursday. Murmu\u2019s victory was assured as she was backed by Modi\u2019s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which dominates federal and state politics.
\n\u201cA daughter of India hailing from a tribal community born in a remote part of eastern India has been elected our President!\u201d Modi said on Twitter.
\nBorn into a family of the Santhal tribe from the state of Odisha, Murmu started her career as a school teacher and actively participated in community issues.
\nShe later joined mainstream politics and served as a BJP state lawmaker in Odisha before becoming governor of the eastern state of Jharkhand.
\nHer election is seen as the BJP\u2019s outreach to India\u2019s tribal communities, which comprise more than 8% of its 1.4 billion people.
\n\u201cThe BJP will want to offset any anti-incumbency of the last 10 years in 2024, and one of the ways to do that is to go for a new vote-base,\u201d political columnist Neerja Choudhary told Reuters.
\nMurmu beat the opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha, a former BJP finance minister and now a fierce critic of Modi, winning nearly twice as many votes.
\nThe Indian president acts as the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces but the prime minister holds executive powers. Murmu will take over from Ram Nath Kovind.
\nThe president, nevertheless, has a key role during political crisis, such as when a general election is inconclusive, by deciding which party is in the best position to form a government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Droupadi Murmu, a 64-year-old teacher turned politician, will be the second woman to hold the largely ceremonial role MUMBAI Lawmakers chose India\u2019s first president from the country\u2019s tribal communities on Thursday, which could boost the appeal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s party among marginalised groups ahead of the 2024 general election. Droupadi Murmu, a 64-year-old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272907,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[195,390,9782],"class_list":{"0":"post-272909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-india","9":"tag-president","10":"tag-tribal-community"},"yoast_head":"\n