Pranab Mukherjee will win with 65% votes: P Chidambaram

KOLKATA: Union Home Minister P Chidambaram today expressed confidence that Pranab Mukherjee would win the Presidential election with over 65 per cent votes when asked whether the UPA candidate would sail through without Trinamool Congress support.

"Don't bring TMC into it, but I will give you the answer, Pranab Mukherjee will win the presidential election with over 65 per cent of valid votes cast," Chidambaram told a media interaction here.

Asked whether without the Trinamool Congress support, Pranab Mukherjee would win the presidential election, Chidambaram said "one way or the other, we will win with over 65 per cent of valid votes cast."

Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, who also took part in the interaction at the Kolkata Press Club, said "we believe that is the number within the electoral college that Pranab Mukherjee will get."

Mamata Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress supremo, who has expressed her opposition to Mukherjee's candidature and also proposed other names for the Presidential post, has recently said that her party would decide on the issue three days before the election.

Sibal met Banerjee, the West Bengal Chief Minister, at Writers' Building in the afternoon for over half an hour, raising speculation about the issues discussed between them.

Sibal, however, said "my discussion with Mamataji was about West Bengal's children and their future only."

This is the first time that a senior Congress leader from Delhi met Banerjee after her spat with the Congress leadership over the presidential candidate.