In India, summed up the results of the presidential elections held on July 18. The new head of state was Draupadi Murmu from a small tribe of Santals, whose representatives belong to the least socially protected segments of the population. Mrs. Murmu confidently defeated her competitor, Yashwant Sinha, a representative of the opposition forces. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who supported her candidacy, expressed his conviction that she “will become a great president” capable of “showing compassion” and coming to the aid of the “poor and oppressed.”
The summing up of the results of the election of the 15th President of the Republic of India, held on Thursday in Delhi, did not bring a sensation. Draupadi Murmu, 64, led by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), won a landslide victory against a single opposition candidate, Yashwant Sinha, who represented the All India Trinamool Congress party.
The opening of sealed ballot boxes with ballot papers, which were delivered to the Indian Parliament building the day before by road and air transport, accompanied by security, completed the electoral marathon, which was attended by about 5 thousand members of the electoral college. It includes members of both houses of parliament, as well as deputies to the legislatures of the states and union territories.
The presidential elections in India have no analogues in the world due to the uniqueness of the system for determining the winner. The result of the vote is determined not by a simple count of the number of electors who voted for a particular candidate, but by summing up the points that the candidate has collected in his piggy bank.
Electoral votes have different weights, which are determined by their status, as well as which regions they represent. The vote of each member of the national parliament, regardless of the chamber, is equal to 700 points. In the case of regional electors, everything is much more complicated. Their scores are calculated using a formula that takes into account the ratio of the number of seats in state parliaments to their population.
For example, in the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh (its population exceeds 200 million people), which is called the “heart of India”, the electoral vote is estimated at 208 points. And in the small northeastern state of Sikkim, lost in the Himalayas, with a population of less than 1 million people, the electoral vote brings only 7 points. To win, a presidential candidate must receive not only more than half of the electoral votes, but also more than half of the “total weight” of their votes, which is 1,86,431 points.
Considering that India is a parliamentary republic and the head of the executive branch is the prime minister, one might get the impression that the country’s president, elected for five years, performs purely ceremonial functions. However, the Indian constitution gives the president, in whom hundreds of millions of the country’s citizens see the symbol of the nation, fairly broad powers.
Officially considered the head of state of India and supreme commander in chief, the President appoints the Prime Minister, who becomes the leader of the party or coalition of the majority in Parliament, as well as the governors of the states and union territories, and confirms the cabinet ministers, judges of the Supreme Court and high courts of the states.
In addition, according to the constitution, the president has the right to dissolve parliament, the legislatures of states and union territories, as well as to remove local governments and introduce presidential rule – direct control of a particular state by federal bodies. At the same time, in accordance with the constitution, in most cases the president is obliged to act taking into account the recommendations of the prime minister and the cabinet of ministers. This system of checks and balances makes the Indian central government resilient in the event of crises or political turbulence.
Meanwhile, the main feature of the elections in India for the 15th President of the country, who will replace the outgoing Ram Nath Kovind after the expiration of the five-year mandate, was the sensational ascent to the political Olympus of almost one and a half billion Indian democracy, Draupadi Murmu, a woman from the very bottom, born in the eastern state of Odisha (until 2011 – Orissa).
Nominated for the presidency of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Ms. Murmu became the “most popular” head of state in the history of independent India. She comes from a small, obscure tribe of Santals (Santals are classified as “scheduled tribes”, historically belonging to the social lower classes).
Draupadi Murmu grew up in Mayurbhanj, one of the most remote and underdeveloped areas of the state of Orissa. Educated at the Ramadevi Women’s College in the state capital, Bhubaneshwar, she began her career there as a teacher, and in the late 90’s she was promoted to a junior assistant position in the state’s Irrigation and Energy Department. Just a few years later, a woman from the Santal tribe managed to make a dizzying rise in her career – from 2000 to 2004 she worked as a minister in the coalition government of Orissa, and in 2015 she was appointed governor of the neighboring 33 million state of Jharkhand, a position she held until 2021 of the year.
These successes were facilitated not only by her organizational skills, but also by the support provided by the Bharatiya Janata Party, which came to power in India in 2014, headed by then Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Recall that a native of the state of Gujarat, Mr. Modi also belongs to the Indian lower classes by origin – he is a member of the Modh Ghancis caste, included in the register of “Other backward castes.”
The party in power began to position Draupadi Murma as the new rising star of “people’s politics” – the leader of poor tribal communities who live in villages where there are often no hospitals and educational institutions, but take the initiative into their own hands and begin to solve their problems on their own.
Indian media draw attention to the fact that Draupadi Murma was not broken by a series of personal tragedies that she survived from 2009 to 2015, having lost two sons and a husband. The meditation practice Brahma Kumaris helped her survive these tragedies. “She has gone through a lot of pain and struggle, but she is not afraid of adversity,” the former president of the BJP chapter in her home state, Manmohan Samal, said of Draupadi Murmu.
“Draupadi Murmu has dedicated her life to serving society and empowering the poor, the oppressed and the marginalized. She has rich administrative experience and was an outstanding governor. I am sure that she will become a great president of our country. Her understanding of political issues and her inherent compassion will greatly benefit our country,” said Prime Minister Modi, expressing his conviction that her presidency “will be highly appreciated by all sectors of society in India.”
Draupadi Murmu will officially take office on July 25.