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| Draupadi Murmu is the second woman after Pratibha Devi Singh Patil to serve as Indian President (Photo: AFP) |
India has elected Draupadi Murmu, a woman politician from a tribal community, as its new president.
Draupadi Murmu, 64, a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party from the eastern state of Odisha, belongs to the Santhal tribe.
This tribe is one of the 700 tribes of India which constitute about nine percent of the country's population of more than 1.4 billion.
The results of the Election Commission show that they have won seats in both houses of Parliament and the legislative assemblies of every state in India.
After getting the majority of the votes cast by the legislators, Modi announced the victory of Draupadi Murmu on social media after the Election Commission results.
He wrote on his Twitter account that "Congratulations to Draupadi Murmuji for this achievement." History was made in India.
At a time when one billion 30 crore Indians are celebrating the Amrit Mahotsav of civil independence, a daughter of India who hails from a tribal community in a remote part of eastern India has been elected as our President.
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Draupadi Murmu is the second woman after Pratibha Devi Singh Patil to serve as the President of India. Indian President Ram Nath Kovind's term ends on July 25.
Draupadi Murmu's opponent was opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha, a senior BJP leader before quitting the party in 2018.
Sinha, 84, served as the country's finance minister from 1998 to 2002 and as foreign minister from 2002 to 2004 in the former BJP government.
Draupadi Marmu will boost BJP's efforts to win over tribal voters in state elections in Gujarat this year and Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh next year.
Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a Delhi-based writer and analyst considered an expert on Hindu nationalist politics, believes that "victory does not necessarily translate into electoral advantage."
Draupadi Marmu's victory is not important for the tribals of the country, it is merely symbolic. This is not a game changer for Modi.
He has put the opposition parties in a lot of trouble because the BJP is now able to say that you are not supporting a tribal woman, but beyond that Modi will not be able to do anything,” Mukhopadhyay said.
'It's not really going to help them improve,' he says. We have seen that the condition of the marginalized people has remained the same in the last five years.
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