New Delhi : Droupadi Murmu on Monday took oath as the 15th President of India.
Chief Justice of India NV Ramana administered the oath of office of the President to her in the Central Hall of Parliament.
The 64-year-old defeated opposition presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha to become the first tribal and the second woman to hold the top constitutional post.
Outgoing President Ram Nath Kovind and Murmu arrived in parliament in a ceremonial procession ahead of the oath ceremony.
Murmu was escorted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vice-President and Chairman of the Rajya Sabha M Venkaiah Naidu and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to the Central Hall.
Members of the Council of Ministers, Governors, Chief Ministers, heads of diplomatic missions, Members of Parliament and principal civil and military officers of the government were also present at the swearing-in ceremony.
Ahead of the oath ceremony, Murmu visited the memorial of Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat, and paid her respects to the Father of the Nation. She then met outgoing President Ram Nath Kovind and first lady Savita Kovind.
After the oath ceremony, the President will leave for Rashtrapati Bhavan, where an inter-services guard of honour will be given to her in the forecourt and courtesies will be extended to the outgoing President Kovind.
The oath ceremony will be followed by a 21-gun salute.
On July 22, the former Jharkhand Governor Murmu registered a historic win over her rival Yashwant Sinha in the Presidential election, becoming the first woman tribal candidate and the second woman in the country to occupy the highest office in the country.
Murmu received 2,824 votes with a value of 6,76,803 while her opponent Yashwant Sinha secured 1,877 votes with a value of 3,80,177. A total of 4,809 MPs and MLAs cast their votes in the polling that took place on July 18.
Secretary General of Rajya Sabha and the Returning Officer for Presidential Election 2022, PC Mody handed over the certificate to President-elect Droupadi Murmu at her residence in Delhi.
Born in a Santali tribal family on June 30, 1958, in Uparbeda village coming under Mayurbhanj district in Odisha, she had her education from Bhubaneswar and went on to work first as a junior assistant in the State Irrigation and Power Department from 1979 to 1983. After this short stint as a clerk, she became a teacher at Sri Aurobindo Integral Education Centre at Rairangpur till 1997.
Murmu commenced her journey in the field of politics in 1997 by joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). She was first elected as the councillor of the Rairangpur Nagar Panchayat and then went on to become the chairperson of the same panchayat in 2000. Later, she also served as the national vice president of the BJP Scheduled Tribe Morcha.
In 2015, Murmu became the first woman governor of Jharkhand. She also became the first woman tribal leader from Odisha to be appointed as the governor of a state.
Born in a Santali tribal family on June 30, 1958, in Uparbeda village coming under Mayurbhanj district in Odisha, she had her education from Bhubaneswar and went on to work first as a junior assistant in the State Irrigation and Power Department from 1979 to 1983. After this short stint as a clerk, she became a teacher at Sri Aurobindo Integral Education Centre at Rairangpur till 1997.
