Pranab confident of win; Cong hopes to win 7 lakh votes

New Delhi, Jun 27: With the

heating up, the UPA seems to be in an extremely confident position after it managed to unite the dissenting voices to garner support for their Presidential nominee

for the top job. According to their calculation, Pranab will garner over seven lakh value votes of the total 10.98 lakh in the Presidential poll slated to be held on Jul 19.

Pranab Mukerjee will file his nomination papers for the poll on Jun 28 at 11 am. He will reportedly be accompanied by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Sharad Pawar, Mulayam Singh Yadav, TR Baalu, Ajit Singh, Dr Farooq Abdullah, E Ahmed, Lalu Prasad Yadav, AK Antony, P Chidambaram and others. CPI(M) and the Forward Bloc have also pledged their support to Mukherjee.

PA Sangma, former NCP leader and projected tribal leader for the President's post and also a BJP nominee, is campaigning hard to drum up support for his candidature. He had met West Bengal CM and Trinamool Congress chief seeking support; she was, however, undecided and maintained a stoic silence on who she is likely to support. Sangma too will file his nomination papers on Thursday, Jun 28.

Among those who will accompany Sangma will be senior BJP leaders, Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy, senior MPs from AIADMK and BJD. The other two key NDA allies JD(U) and Shiv Sena shifted their allegiance and chose to back Pranab Mukherjee.

The other interesting fact is that among those who are proposers for Pranab's nomination are JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav. Pranab will, however, file four sets of nomination papers with the proposers also including the likes of AK Antony and JD-U MP Vashishtha Narayan Singh. The BJP is still discussing on who will be the proposer for Sangma.

OneIndia News