Draupadi Murmu: Biography

1. Draupadi
Murmu
Biography

2. Snapshot
• Draupadi Murmu (born June 20, 1958) is an Indian politician.
• She is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
• She is the official nominee of the BJP led National Democratic Alliance
for the 2022 presidential election.
• She previously served as the ninth Governor of Jharkhand from 2015 to
2021.
• She is first women Presidential candidate from the state of Odisha
• She is the first governor of Jharkhand to complete the five year term, and
the first person, man or woman, belonging to a scheduled tribe, to be
nominated to the post of President of India.

3. Personal life
• Draupadi Murmu was born in a Santali tribal family on June 20, 1958, in
Baidaposi village of Mayurbhanj district in Odisha, to Biranchi Narayan
Tudu.
• Both her father and grandfather were village heads under the Panchayati
Raj system.
• She hails from Santhal Tribe.
• She did Bachelor in Arts from Rama Devi Women’s College,
Bhubaneswar, Odisha.
• Draupadi Murmu married Shyam Charan Murmu. The couple had two
sons, both of whom died, and a daughter (Itishree)

4. State Politics
• Murmu was elected as the councillor of the Rairangpur Nagar Panchayat
in 1997.
• She also served as the national vice-president of BJP Scheduled Tribes
Morcha.
• During the BJP and BJD coalition government in Odisha, she was the
Minister of State with Independent Charge for Commerce and Transport
from March 6, 2000 to August 6, 2002 and Fisheries and Animal
Resources Development from August 6, 2002 to May 16, 2004.
• She is former Odisha Minister and an MLA from Rairangpur Assembly
constituency in the years 2000 and 2004.
• She was conferred Nilkantha Award for best MLA by Odisha Legislative
Assembly in 2007.

5. Governorship
• She was the first woman Governor of Jharkhand.
• She was the first female tribal leader from Odisha to get
appointed as a governor in an Indian state.
• She is the first governor of Jharkhand to complete the five year
term.
• She was in governor office from 18 May, 2015 to 12, July 2021.
• In June 2022, the BJP picked Murmu as the National Democratic
Alliance's candidate for President of India for the 2022 election.

6. Some Lesser Known Facts
• Before joining politics in 1997, she was an assistant professor at Shri
Aurobindo Integral Education and Research Centre, Rajgangpur.
• She worked as a junior assistant in Irrigation Department, Government of
Odisha from 1979 to 1983.
• She quit her government job in 1983.
• In 2009, she lost her son in an accident after which she suffered from
depression.
• In 2013, she lost her second son and in 2014, her husband died.
• In 2016, Murmu announced that she would donate her eyes after death
to the Kashyap Memorial Eye Hospital, Ranchi.
• Her daughter Itishree Murmu works in a bank.

7. “I have witnessed many ups and
downs in my life. I have lost my two
sons and my husband. I was
completely devastated. But God has
given me the strength to serve the
people”
Draupadi Murmu