President

Droupadi Murmu (born Durgi Biranchi Tudu; June 20, 1958) is an Indian politician who has been serving as the 15th president of India since 2022, after winning the presidential election as the candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). She is notable for being the first individual from a tribal community and the second woman, after Pratibha Patil, to hold this office. At 64, she is also the youngest person to assume the presidency and the first president born in independent India.

Prior to her presidency, she was the 8th governor of Jharkhand from 2015 to 2021, making her the longest-serving governor of that state. She served as a member of the Odisha Legislative Assembly from the Rairangpur constituency from 2000 to 2009 and held the position of Minister of State (Independent Charge) in the Government of Odisha from 2000 to 2004. Before entering politics, she worked as a clerk in the State Irrigation and Power Department from 1979 to 1983 and later as a teacher in Rairangpur from 1994 to 1997.

In 1997, Droupadi Murmu was elected as a councillor for the Rairangpur Nagar Panchayat as an independent candidate from a reserved seat for women. She subsequently joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

In the 2000 Odisha Legislative Assembly election, she won the seat from the Rairangpur constituency and served two terms in the assembly from 2000 to 2009. During the coalition government of the BJP and BJD in Odisha, she held the position of Minister of State with Independent Charge for Commerce and Transportation from March 6, 2000, to August 6, 2002, and then for Fisheries and Animal Resources Development from August 6, 2002, to May 16, 2004.

In 2007, she was honored with the Nilkanth Award for the Best MLA of the Odisha Legislative Assembly. However, in 2009, she lost the Lok Sabha election from the Mayurbhanj constituency, as the alliance between the BJD and BJP had dissolved. In 2013, she was elected to the BJP National Executive (ST Morcha) and served as the district president until 2015.