Oye! News from India

Pranab Mukherjee to be elected president today

Category: India Published on Wednesday, 18 July 2012 16:32 Written by Shruti Chopra

The Congress-led UPA has established a clear edge over the opposition on the eve of  the presidential election, as all supporting parties and allies, including Trinamool Congress, turned up for a lunch hosted by Congress president Sonia Ghandi in the capital. It also manged to wean way three key parties from the opposition-JD(U), CPI(M) and Shiv as well as emerged as the only formation that could stay together.

It had made the Congress confident of an easy victory by the swelling support in favor of its presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee. However, its key strategists did not quit on Mamata Banerjee. PM Manmohan Singh led the nonstop effort to win back a sulking Banerjee has finally paid off when she declared, 48 hours before the polling, her support for the UPA.

Manish Tewari the Congress spokesperson said, "This will strengthen the ties between the Congress and the Trinamool." The UPA managers were also sure that no large-scale cross-voting would be taking place from the UPA.

The Parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said, "Except a few votes in Meghalaya, we don't fear for any major loss due to cross-voting. On the other hand, many opposition MPs and MLAs may vote for us." He added that the ruling coalition's vote share may rise to 7.5 lakh.

To guarantee a high victory edge, the Congress managers spoke to smaller parties and independent MPs. Expelled SP MPs such as Amar Singh and Jaya Prada, Vijay Mallya, Rajiv Chandrasekhar have been requested to cast their votes for Congress candidates.

 

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