With their village daughter Droupadi Murmu certain to win the Presidential polls, the residents of Droupadi Murmu’s village Uperbeda was ready to celebrate the Historic day even before the counting began. “It Vijay Divas’ for all the tribal community,” said a local youth. The Santhali dominated Uperbeda- in Kusumi block of Mayurbhanj district in Odisha- is home to six thousand people. Murmu is the first from the tribal community to become the President of India.
Residents cleaned the roads in the morning, ladoos had been ordered well in advance. They performed traditional dance to the beats of traditional musical instruments. Ladoos were distributed among all. Despite it being the farming season-they all grow paddy once a year-they decided to enjoy the day.
They had also performed puja for their own daughter’s success, yesterday. Celebrations went on in different other villages. :At every block of the district, there is celebrations,” claimed senior advocate Jaharlal Mandal.
Twenty kilometers away, at the sub divisional headquarters Rairangpur, all arrangements for a mega celebration had been done in advance. It’s Rairngpur from where Murmu’s political career took off when she was first elected as a councilor to the NAC before being the MLA from Rairangpur seat, twice.
The town was decked with lights and flowers. From around nine in the morning celebrations were underway as fire crackers were burst by the residents. According to Mandal, around twenty five people were busy making ladoos for the last three days. Thousands of people, including tribal men and women of all ages, danced and music was played. “Never before we had experienced such traffic jam,” said a resident.
BJP activist Pradip Rout, 60, who claims to be an asscoaite of Murmu from the time she contested her first assembly election in 2000, informed that the party distributed 10quintals of ladoos today. “Tomorrow, there will be dance and music too. Also, lunch will be provided to around 700-800 people,” shared Pradeep.
#WATCH | Celebrations underway at Odisha’s Rairangpur village, the native place of NDA’s presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu, who is leading with 1,349 votes & inching closer to victory. pic.twitter.com/aZkeQMJNh8
— ANI (@ANI) July 21, 2022
The Local unit of the Biju Janata Dal also celebrated the day. In other districts of Odisha, there were reports of celebrations as well. In state capital, Bhubaneswar the BJP office wore a festive look. Party workers were seen distributing sweets among each other. Thousands of people, men and women right from morning.
