Centre accords Z+ security to NDA presidential candidate Draupadi

New Delhi, Jun 22: The Centre has accorded a Z+ security cover of CRPF commandos to the NDA's presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu on Wednesday. The armed squad took over the security of Murmu, 64, early Wednesday morning.

Draupadi Murmu, a tribal leader and former Jharkhand Governor, has been named as BJP-led NDA's choice for the next 16th President of India.

Soon after this announcement, the Union home ministry directed the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) to deploy its VIP security protection team to take charge of Murmu's security. If elected, Draupadi Murmu will be India's first tribal and second-ever female President.

She belongs to the Schedule Tribe community. She is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. She is the first governor of Jharkhand to complete the five year term (2015-2021), since its formation in the year 2000.

Born on June 20, 1958, Murmu also holds the distinction of becoming the first woman Governor of Jharkhand. Murmu will also be the first president to be born after Independence.

Murmu took her baby steps struggling with poverty in one of the most remote and underdeveloped districts of the country.

Overcoming all odds, she earned her Bachelor's degree in Arts from Ramadevi Women's College in Bhubaneswar and served as a junior assistant in the irrigation and power department in the Odisha government.

Later, she also served as an honorary assistant teacher in the Shri Aurobindo Integral Education Centre in Rairangpur. Murmu was awarded the Nilkanth Award for the Best MLA of the year in 2007 by the Odisha Legislative assembly.

She has diverse administrative experience having handled ministries such as transport, commerce, fisheries and animal husbandry in the Odisha government. In the BJP, Murmu was the vice president and later president of the Scheduled Tribe Morcha in Odisha. She was elected as the district president of Mayurbhanj (West) unit of the BJP in 2010 and re-elected in 2013.

She was also named as member of the BJP National Executive (ST Morcha) the same year. She held the post of district president till April 2015 when she was appointed as the Governor of Jharkhand. Murmu was married to Shyam Charan Murmu and they had two sons and a daughter. Her life has been marked with personal tragedies as she lost her husband and two sons.