RANCHI: It is a unique coincidence that Droupadi Murmu and Yashwant Sinha, the two candidates for the presidency, have both developed strong ties to Jharkhand.

While Yashwant Sinha has been a three-time MP from the Jharkhand constituency of Hazaribagh Lok Sabha, Murmu, who has been declared the NDA alliance's presidential nominee, previously served as the governor of Jharkhand for six years.

Droupadi Murmu has remained a BJP member, but Yashwant Sinha, who was a national-level BJP leader for nearly two decades and a minister in the Vajpayee government, quit the party and joined the Trinamool Congress before resigning to run for President.

On May 18, 2015, Murmu was sworn in as the governor of Jharkhand, a position he held for 6 years, 48 days. But after serving as Governor of Jharkhand for a year, in July 2021, she left for her native city Rairangpur, Odisha after completing her term as the Governor of Jharkhand.

The ruling NDA alliance has nominated her for the nation's top constitutional position exactly one year later, in July 2022. She began her political career in 1997 after being elected as the District Board Councilor in Rairangpur, Odisha, where she was born on June 20, 1958, into a modest Santhal tribal family.

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