After three rounds of vote counting, India got its new President Draupadi Murmu. She is the first tribal woman to hold this post in country’s history.
Ms Murmu stood as NDA’s candidate in Presidential elections held on July 18 against Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha.
The oath ceremony for the new President will take place on July 25.
Ms Murmu’s vote bank was almost twice of Yashwant Sinha after three rounds of counting. With 65.03% of total votes the tribal woman won a landslide victory defeating the Opposition’s candidate who just received 55.97% of votes.
In numbers Ms Murmu got 1,349 votes of total value 4,83,299, while Mr Sinha got 537 votes of value 1,89,876.
Soon after the declaration of the results, Prime Minister along with BJP president JP Nadda and other Cabinet members congratulated Ms Murmu. Heavy celebrations made all around the country filled with sweets and colourful tribal performances.
“I heartily congratulate Srimati Droupadi Murmu on her victory in the Presidential Election 2022. I hope — indeed, every Indian hopes — that as the 15th President of India she functions as the Custodian of the Constitution without fear or favour. I join my fellow countrymen in extending best wishes to her,” a statement released by Yashwant Sinha read.
The preliminaries of vote counting had begun at 11 am at the Parliament House and then the actual counting began at 1:30 pm. The trend became inevitable acted the first round when Ms Murmu stood at 39%.
Meanwhile, the BJP in Delhi started its roadshow to mark celebrations on their way from the party headquarters to Rajpath
Assam Chief Minister who congratulated Ms Murmu said, “The first women tribal to become President is a momentous occasion and thanks to PM Modi for giving such unique gift. There is absolute euphoria in Assam, particularly in the tea gardens, people are very happy”.
Soon after the trend became clear, the tribal woman’s hometown Odisha’s Rairangpur broke into massive celebrations.
The NDA’s candidate Ms Murmu, who is a tribal woman from Odisha and a former governor of Jharkhand drew backing from various non-alinged parties like Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSR Congress and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal.
During the vote counting it was also seen that there was also a cross voting in favour of Ms Murmu as several opposition MPs and MLAs had voted for her. However, there is no punishment for cross-voying in Parliament elections.
