India's ruling alliance announces Draupadi Murmu as its presidential candidate

NEW DELHI, June 22: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the ruling alliance in India, said on Tuesday that Draupadi Murmu will be its candidate for the presidential election scheduled to be held next month.

Going by past experiences, the ruling party's or alliance's candidate wins the presidential election. Hence, it is assumed that Draupadi is expected to win the Presidential election.

If she wins, Draupadi will be the country's second woman president, after Pratibha Devisingh Patil who served as the head of state during 2007-2012.

Draupadi hails from India's eastern state of Odisha, and is a former minister in Odisha state government and former governor of the state of Jharkhand.

Making the formal announcement in New Delhi, ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) President J.P. Nadda said that a consensus was achieved among NDA partners to select a lady candidate from the country's eastern part as its presidential candidate.

Voting by elected representatives, Members of Parliament and Members of Legislative Assembly across all states, will take place on July 18 and the counting of votes is slated to be held on July 21.

Earlier in the day, the opposition parties fielded Yashwant Sinha as their joint candidate for the presidential election. Sinha is the country's former finance minister and a senior politician.