By Shakir Husain<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NEW DELHI, July 22 (NNN-Bernama) — A woman politician belonging to a poor tribal community in the eastern state of Odisha will be India’s new president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Droupadi Murmu, 64, will become the country’s second-ever female president when she replaces 76-year-old Ram Nath Kovind, whose five-year term ends on July 24.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The post is largely ceremonial but comes with key constitutional responsibilities that make the president’s role crucial during political crises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Murmu, who was nominated by the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), defeated 84-year-old opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sinha is a former finance minister, who resigned from the BJP in 2018 over political differences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He congratulated Murmu on her victory after the vote count on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“India hopes that as the 15th president of the republic she functions as the custodian of the Constitution without fear or favour,” Sinha said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The voting was held on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
India’s president is indirectly chosen, with the electoral college made up of the elected members in the national and state legislatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Belonging to the Santhal tribe in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district, Murmu started her career as a school teacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She later entered politics and served as a lawmaker and minister in Odisha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Murmu retired as Jharkhand state’s governor in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“She had an excellent tenure as Jharkhand governor. I am certain she will be an outstanding President who will lead from the front and strengthen India’s development journey,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
— NNN-BERNAMA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Shakir Husain NEW DELHI, July 22 (NNN-Bernama) — A woman politician belonging to a poor tribal community in the eastern state of Odisha will be India’s new president. Droupadi Murmu, 64, will become the country’s second-ever female president when she replaces 76-year-old Ram Nath Kovind, whose five-year term ends on July 24. The post […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":184647,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[215,288,194],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184646"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=184646"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184648,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184646\/revisions\/184648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/184647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=184646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=184646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=184646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}