Draupadi Murmu, ex-Jharkhand Governor, to be NDA's candidate for Presidential elections

Former Jharkhand Governor Droupadi Murmu was named as the NDA's presidential candidate by the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday. JP Nadda, the president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, made the announcement following a meeting of the BJP Parliamentary Board chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“For the first time, preference has been given to a woman tribal candidate. We announce Droupadi Murmu as NDA's candidate for the upcoming Presidential elections,” Nadda said.

Between 2015 and 2021, the tribal leader served as the governor of Jharkhand. She will be the first tribal woman to hold the highest constitutional position if elected. She will run for president against Yashwant Sinha, the UPA's presidential nominee, who announced his candidacy earlier in the day.

The presidential elections will take place on July 18 and, if necessary, the vote counting will take place on July 21. The deadline to submit a nomination is June 29. By July 25, the new president must be sworn in. On July 24, President Ram Nath Kovind's term will come to an end.

“A total of 4,809 electors to vote in the Presidential elections 2022. No political party can issue a whip to its members,” chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar had said.

India's president is chosen by an electoral college, which casts votes in a secret ballot. With a total of 4,809 votes cast, this electoral college consists of 776 members of Parliament (both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) and members of legislative assemblies. The total number of votes cast by members of assemblies is 543,231; the number of votes cast by MPs is 543,200, for a total of 1,086,431.

Nominated members of the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, as well as state legislative assemblies, are not eligible to be included in the electoral college, and thus are not allowed to vote in the election.

Draupadi Murmu (born 20 June 1958) is an Indian politician belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party. She is the official nominee of the BJP led National Democratic Alliance for the 2022 Indian presidential election. She previously served as the ninth Governor of Jharkhand from 2015 to 2021.

She belongs to the Schedule Tribe community from the state of Odisha in India. She is the first governor of Jharkhand to complete the five year term, and the first tribal to be nominated to the post of President of India.