By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, July 18 2022: Ms Droupadi Murmu, BJP-led NDA candidate – the first lady from the Santhal tribe to be India’s Number One, is all set to win presidential polls even as the results will be out on July 21.

Ms Murmu is placed comfortably in the direct contest with Yashwant Sinha, the Opposition candidate. She got support from several non-NDA parties owing to her tribal identity, particularly in states with significant population of tribal or other backward communities.

These non-NDA parties include those otherwise in partnership with the Congress, such as the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha. Odisha’s ruling party, former NDA constituent Biju Janata Dal, is already supporting her. The Congress has nine members in a House of 147. Even a Congress MLA from Odisha, Mohammed Moquim, on Monday went against the party line and voted for Ms Murmu.

“It’s my personal decision as I’ve listened to my heart, which guided me to do something for the soil and that’s why voted for her,” he said.

In these elections — in which MPs and MLAs are the voters — parties cannot issue binding whips, so the anti-defection law doesn’t come into play.

A former BJP leader who was governor of Jharkhand, Ms Murmu only needs to cross the halfway mark to win, but has over 60 per cent votes, going by the declarations of support. Initially, the NDA on its own was marginally short of the mark.

Within days of her being named as the NDA candidate for President, her remote village, Pahardpur, in Mayurbhanj district hit the national headlines. The village is near the border with Jharkhand. Nearly 80 per cent of the population is tribal, and the Santhal community of Droupadi Murmu is the dominant group.

Her struggle and simplicity is clearly reflected also in a five-room house in the nearby town of Rairangpur. Bought by her husband in the 1990s, this continues to be home after her term as Governor of Jharkhand ended last year. Her husband was a bank official, who added to the house a hall and a verandah for visitors.

For Ms Murmu, the journey from what used to be a backward tribal belt has been far from easy. Yet, she is not a stranger to being the first at something. She was the first from her paternal village, Uperbeda in the same district, to go to college in state capital Bhubaneshwar, about 270 kilometres away. Her parents could afford to just ₹ 10 as monthly allowance for her.

The government school in Pahardpur is only up to Class 8. Women here say older children have to go three kilometres away to nearby Badampahar, where there is a higher secondary school, besides two colleges.