Pranab Mukherjee to be elected president today

NEW DELHI: On the eve of the presidential election, the Congress-led UPA was a picture of unity, as all supporting parties and allies, including Trinamool Congress, turned up for a lunch hosted by Congress president Sonia Gandhi in the capital.

Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee sent Rajya Sabha MPs KD Singh and Sukhendu Sekhar Roy for the luncheon get-together at Ashoka hotel on Wednesday to mark presence of the ally.

Congress managers did not read much into the absence of Lok Sabha MPs or central ministers, saying the regional ally had announced its support so it did not matter who represented it at the luncheon.

Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav was seated along with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar, RJD chief Lalu Prasad, BSP leader Satish Chandra Mishra and RLD chief Ajit Singh shared the table with Sonia Gandhi.

Senior party leaders Ahmed Patel, Janardan Dwivedi, Ambika Soni and Shakeel Ahmed received the guests at the venue.
Soni told reporters after the lunch that it was a routine affair. She said this kind of lunch is hosted by Congress president every year for UPA allies and parties supporting the government from outside and it was only a coincidence that this time it took place a day before the voting for presidential election.

The numbers are heavily tilted in favour of UPA candidate Pranab Mukherjee, who is expected to secure around 7.5 lakh electoral college votes, against just three lakh for his rival PA Sangma, who has the backing of parties like BJP, AIADMK, BJD and Akali Dal.

With Trinamool Congress agreeing to support Mukherjee, the contest lost whatever political significance it had. As many as 4,896 lawmakers - 776 MPs and 4,120 MLAs - are eligible to vote in Parliament and state assemblies. The total vote value is 10.98 lakh and a winning candidate needs to get 5,49,442 votes to win if all legislators vote. The votes will be counted on Sunday and the result is expected to be known by early evening.

Besides UPA and its four supporting parties - SP, BSP, RJD, JD(S) - NDA members JD(U) and Shiv Sena and CPM and Forward Bloc have declared their support for Mukherjee.

CPI, RSP, TDP and TRS which together have about 36,000 votes are likely to abstain. There are around 32,000 votes with smaller parties that have no presence in Parliament but have MLAs.

Sangma, a former Lok Sabha Speaker, jumped into the fray playing the tribal card with initial support of the BJD and AIADMK. BJP and Akali Dal decided to back Sangma, who quit the NCP, the party he founded with Sharad Pawar, to contest the election.

With the support of SP (66,688 vote value), BSP (45,473), JD(U) (40,737), Shiv Sena (18,495), JD(S) (6,138) and CPM and Forward Bloc (around 41,000), Mukherjee can expect a vote share of around 7.5 lakh.

Source: http://economictimes.feedsportal.com/fy/8av2Fvy0c0lJG2mC/story01.htm

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