Lawmakers elected India’s first president from the country’s tribal communities on Thursday.
Droupadi 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.
“A daughter of India hailing from a tribal community born in a remote part of eastern India has been elected our President!” ModiBorn into a family of the Santhal tribe from the state of Odisha, Murmu started her career as a schoolteacher and actively participated in community issues. Her election is seen as the BJP’s outreach to India’s tribal communities, which make up more than 8 percent of its 1.4 billion people.
Murmu beat the opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha, a former BJP finance minister and now a fierce critic of Modi, winning nearly twice as many votes.
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