Was There A Possibility Of A Tribal Leader Before Draupadi Murmu?

XploringIndia 22nd Jul, 2022

Etching history, the Santhal tribe leader, and ex-governor of Jharkhand, Draupadi Murmu has become the 15thPresident of India.

Draupadi won the elections with an overwhelming margin of 72% beating opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha.

Little do we know that 10 years ahead of Draupadi Murmu, India had an opportunity to elect a tribal president.

This was during the 2012 Presidential elections when the UPA government stood at the centre and the Prime Minister was Dr Manmohan Singh.

Pranab Mukherjee was the Presidential candidate for Congress and was up against the then opposition’s Purno Agitok Sangma.

Draupadi’s sweeping victory this time reminds us of the 2012 Presidential elections.

Pranab Mukherjee had secured 7,13,763 votes whereas PA Sangma could manage to garner merely 3,15,987 votes at the time.

The opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha's home state of Jharkhand gave him only nine out of 81 votes, while Murmu's home state of Odisha gave her 137 out of 147 votes, producing the opposition's most depressing polling results.

Droupadi Murmu received the votes of 126 MLAs from 18 different states and 17 MPs.