With a landslide win looking imminent for the lady from Odisha's subdivisional town of Rairangpur, in the presidential polls today, Droupadi Murmu's hometown is gearing up to celebrate her victory.
Murmu will be India's first tribal woman president, if she wins.
Rairangpur is on the border with Jharkhand, the state of which she was the governor till last year. The town has a population of around 50,000. Murmu lives in Rairangpur though she belongs to Uperbeda village and has married in Paharpur village in the same district of Mayurbhanj.
Though Murmu belongs to the BJP, which is the main opposition party in Odisha, Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal chief Naveen Patnaik had supported her bid and also appealed to other opposition parties, including the Congress, to extend their support to Murmu. She was a minister in the BJD-BJP coalition government in 2000.
Murmu, too, reciprocated the gesture, calling Patnaik her “elder brother”.
BJD has also announced it will support NDA's vice-president nominee, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi talked to CM Patnaik.
She had attended and addressed a meeting of BJD MLAs and MPs, chaired by Patnaik, while campaigning in Bhubaneswar.
While her party is preparing around 20,000 laddus in Rairangpur, the local unit of BJD is preparing 10,000 laddus to be distributed among people after the announcement of result today.
Both BJD and BJP are planning to organise victory processions in Rairangpur. BJD will have placards of both Patnaik and Murmu.The photo of Murmu tying rakhi on Patnaik's hand is also going to be in the BJD placard.
Murmu's building in the town has been decked up. Both BJD and BJP leaders and workers of Mayurbhanj are reaching Rairangpur to join the celebration.
The private school where Murmu was teaching for sometime is also organising an event.
B.K. Supriya, the in-charge of Brahmakumaris Centre at Rairangpur, where Murmu goes regularly and meditates, said they had special meditation and candle lighting this morning for the future president.
In Uperbeda village and her late husband's Paharpur village, her folks belonging to the Santhal tribe, are preparing for traditional dance and music programmes. In Paharpur, Murmu helped build the SLS (Shyam, Laxman, Sipun) Memorial Residential School in memory of her late husband and sons, in 2016, where tribal children get free education. The school, too, is gearing up to celebrate her win.