Droupadi Murmu will become the first Adivasi woman to occupy the country’s top constitutional post if she wins the presidential elections
File image of NDA presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu. PTI
New Delhi: NDA presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu to visit Patna to seek the support of MPs and MLAs of Bihar for the upcoming polls to elect the first person of the country, a senior BJP leader said.
Jibesh Kumar Mishra, who is also a state minister, told reporters that Murmu will arrive at 10 AM and leave for her next destination by 1.30 PM.
Droupadi Murmu: First tribal woman nominated for president
Droupadi Murmu, who will become the first Adivasi woman to occupy the country’s top constitutional post if she wins the presidential elections, will kick off her tour by garlanding a statue of legendary tribal leader Birsa Munda.
She would thereafter meet NDA lawmakers at a hotel in the city before boarding her flight, said Mishra who also issued an “appeal to Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav and his Left allies” to support Murmu in the polls scheduled for 18 July.
Notably, Yadav’s RJD and allies CPI(ML), CPI and CPI(M), which together have 96 MLAs in the 243-strong assembly, besides a few members in the Rajya Sabha from Bihar, have already decided to support Yashwant Sinha, Murmu’s principal rival.
“I can sense that RJD and Left MLAs want to support Murmu. Their leadership should heed the sentiment and avail of the historic opportunity to help a tribal woman reach the top,” said Mishra.
BJP sources said that Murmu might try and fit into her tight schedule a meeting with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the de facto leader of JD(U).
JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan, who is also the party’s leader in the Lok Sabha, was among those present beside Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief J P Nadda when Murmu filed her nomination papers last week.
A look at Murmu’s life and career
64-year-old Murmu was born in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district to a family belonging to the Santhal tribe.
Living in one of the state’s most underdeveloped regions, her family struggled with poverty. Despite her family’s difficult situation, she went on to graduate from the Ramadevi Women’s College in Bhubaneswar.
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