Kolkata, July 5 (IANS) Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram Thursday expressed confidence that UPA presidential nominee Pranab Mukherjee would win with 65 percent votes, even as Telecom Minister Kabil Sibal met Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee, apparently to seek her support in the poll.
“Please don’t bring Trinamool Congress into this. Pranab Mukherjee will win by bagging more than 65 percent of the votes,” Chidambaram told a media meet at the Press Club here, to queries asked whether the United Progressive Alliance nominee can coast to victory without the Trinamool’s backing.
To a query on whether the Trinamool would extend support to Mukherjee, he replied: “One way or the other, he will get over 65 percent of the valid votes”.
Sibal, who was also present at the media conference, said “That’s the percentage of votes that he (Mukherjee) is sure to get.”
Sibal, who arrived here in the morning, went to state secretariat, Writers’ Buildings, for talks with Banerjee, the West Bengal Chief Minister. However, he denied having met Banerjee to garner support for Mukherjee for the July 19 presidential poll.
“I spoke to her about the children of West Bengal and their future,” quipped Sibak, who is also the human resource development minister.
Mukherjee is pitted against former Lok Sabha speaker P.A. Sangma.
The Trinamool Congress, the second-largest constituent of the Congress-led UPA, is yet to reveal its stand on the presidential poll after its preferred candidate, former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, declined to contest.
But Banerjee has so far been opposing Mukherjee’s bid for the top post. She is said to have told her close circles that she would decide her stand on the poll two or three days before the July 19 voting.
The electoral arithmetic seems to be favouring Mukherjee with all the UPA constituents except Trinamool rooting for him. Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Communist Party of India-Marxist, All India Forward Bloc, Janata Dal-United and Shiv Sena have also expressed their support.
But Congress is keen to get Banerjee on board to put up a united show of the ruling alliance.
