Confident of winning presidential poll with at least 54% votes, says BJP

NEW DELHI: The government is confident that the NDA candidate will sail through the presidential poll with sources claiming that the NDA camp has already stitched up 54% of votes in the electoral college.

Sources said the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is likely to support the government while the AIADMK is certain to back it. " DMK going with Congress and attending Sonia Gandhi's luncheon meeting of opposition parties has sealed the deal between AIADMK and BJP," a senior BJP leader said.

The total value of votes in the electoral college for the presidential poll is 10,98,882 with the majority mark at 5,49,442.

Commenting on the opposition's efforts to put up a contest for the presidential poll, the BJP leader said, "It is amusing to see the feeble attempts at opposition unity. Apart from leaders accused of corruption like Lalu Prasad seated beside former PM Manmohan Singh and Kanimozhi next to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, there was very little that seemed to have been achieved at Friday's meeting."

As a confident BJP prepares to install its own candidate in Rashtrapati Bhavan, a top party source claimed that there was "movement towards the NDA" and the "momentum will soon be visible".

The BJP leadership, on a high after the victories in the last round of assembly polls, is keen to prove its strength in every electoral contest to establish its political supremacy. Hence, the party leadership is making every effort to ensure that its presidential nominee not just wins but does so with a thumping majority.