New Delhi:
The stage is all set for the Presidential poll today with UPA candidate Pranab Mukherjee going up against former Lok Sabha speaker PA Sangma. The numbers are heavily stacked in Mr Mukherjee's favour, who whipped coalition partners into shape and quelled scandals as the Congress party's chief firefighter for years.
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 vote value if all of them exercise franchise.
The votes will be counted on Sunday and the result is expected to be known by early evening.
UPA election managers are claiming a runaway victory for Mr Mukherjee who is expected to get around 65 per cent of the vote value.
The run-up to the Presidential poll saw its twists and turns with key UPA ally Trinamool Congress first declaring its opposition to Mr Mukherjee only to take "the painful decision" to back him. Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee announced on Tuesday that her party will reluctantly vote for Mr Mukherjee in the Presidential poll. She, however, made it clear that Mr Mukherjee, who quit as Finance Minister, is a poor second choice.
"We wanted (former President) APJ Kalam to be President...we would have done everything to make him win...but it is our misfortune that he refused to run," Ms Banerjee said, adding that she wishes she "could have voted for Mr Mukherjee with a smile on her face, but that is not the case."
Besides the UPA and its four supporting parties - the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Bahujan Samaj Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Janata Dal (Secular) -- NDA members like the JD(U) and the Shiv Sena along with the CPI(M) and Forward Bloc have declared their support for Mr Mukherjee.
Mr Sangma jumped into the fray playing the tribal card with initial support from Naveen Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Jayalalithaa's AIADMK. The BJP and Akali Dal decided to back Mr Sangma, who quit the NCP, the party he founded with union minister Sharad Pawar, to contest the election.
So far the numbers suggest that Mr Sangma is expected to be behind Mr Mukherjee with only around 35 per cent of the vote value in his favour.