MUMBAI - Indian lawmakers on Thursday chose Droupadi Murmu as the country's first president from the tribal community.

"India scripts history," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Twitter. "A daughter of India hailing from a tribal community born in a remote part of eastern India has been elected our President!"

(Reporting by Shilpa Jamkhandikar in Mumbai, additional reporting by Nigam Prusty, editing by Mark Heinrich)