Draupadi Murmo, the first woman from an “ethnic minority”, has won India’s presidential election, Al Arabiya network reported.
Mormo, of the Santal ethnic minority, the country’s first female chieftain and second-ever woman in office in India, was presented as a leader representing poor tribal communities, which generally lacked health care and education facilities in remote villages.
Murmo, 64, hails from Odisha and was formerly the governor of Jharkhand state.
In India, the president chooses an electoral college made up of representatives in both houses of parliament and elected members of the legislatures of all states.
The role of the president in India is largely ceremonial, but the position can be important in times of political uncertainty such as the suspension of parliament, when the president assumes greater power.
