A former governor of Jharkhand and a tribal leader from Odisha, Draupadi Murmu, 64, has been selected by the NDA as the candidate for the presidential election, to be pitted against former Union minister Yashwant Sinha. She is also a two-time BJP legislator of Odisha and was a minister in the BJD-BJP coalition government under the leadership of Naveen Patnaik.

The election to choose the successor to Ramnath Kovind will be held on July 18 and the counting of votes on July 21. The new President will take oath on July 25. The voters are all the MPs and MLAs of the country, except the nominated ones.

The selection of Draupadi Murmu has been described as a masterstroke by many. Being a woman and a tribal, she is expected to get the votes of not just the BJP and its NDA partners, but also of the fence-sitters like JD(U) (with Nitish Kumar’s pro-women stance), BJD (a large tribal electorate) and YSR Congress. Being a tribal, Shibu Soren’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, though a part of the opposition, is expected to endorse her candidature too.