Murmu was born on 2 June 1952 at Karandih,
Jamshedpur, then in
Singhbhum district of
Bihar (now
East Singhbhum district,
Jharkhand), into a
Santal family. His father was Ramray Murmu and his mother was Chita Murmu. His father was originally from Uperbera village in the
Rairangpur area of
Mayurbhanj district,
Odisha, and later migrated to Jamshedpur for employment. Murmu is a cousin of President
Droupadi Murmu. He was studied at St. Xavier High School, Lupungutu, Chaibasa (1969),
Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial College, Karandih (1973),
Jamshedpur Co-operative College (B.Com., 1976),
Ranchi University (M.Com., 1987), and
Sambalpur University (LL.B., 2008). After his graduation, he joined
Tata Steel in 1979 as a senior executive and worked there for about ten years. He resigned from the company in 1989 to enter politics. ==Political career==