Pranab will win by more than two-thirds majority: Narayanasamy

With polling underway for choosing the next President of India, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office V Narayanasamy on Thursday said UPA nominee Pranab Mukherjee would win the Raisina Hill race by more than two-thirds majority.

Narayanasamy said the polling process is at the moment going on very smooth.

"Pranab Mukherjee came and he voted. The polling is going on very smooth and more than 400 people have voted according to the feedback, which I have received. Pranab Mukherjee will win by more than two-third majority. He will get minimum 7,20,000 votes," he said.

A confident Pranab Mukherjee cast his vote in Parliament earlier in the day looking all set to occupy the nation's highest position. He was flanked by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

Pranab Mukherjee's son, Abhijit Mukherjee, appeared to be delighted about the presidential election.

"First time may be in Indian history, the presidential candidate himself is a voter from Lok Sabha, and his direct descendent son is also a voter form one of the assemblies. This may be the first time in the history of Indian presidential elections, the first time. It is a great feeling," he said.

Incumbent President Pratibha Devisingh Patil's term is coming to an end on July 24.

Pranab Mukherjee's chances got a major boost on Tuesday after West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee pledged to support him the Raisina Hill race.

4,896 lawmakers- 776 MPs and 4,120 MLAs are voting in Parliament and state assemblies. They do not use EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines). Each of them will list their preference on a ballot paper.

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 likely to be known by early evening.

Besides the UPA and its four supporting parties-SP, BSP, RJD, JD (S), NDA partners JD (U) and Shiv Sena as also the CPI (M) and Forward Bloc have declared their support for Mukherjee.

There are around 32,000 votes with smaller parties, who have no presence in parliament but have legislators in the states.

Sangma, a former Lok Sabha Speaker, jumped into the fray playing the tribal card with the initial support of the Biju Janata Dal and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

The BJP and Akali Dal decided to back Sangma, who quit the NCP, the party he founded with Sharad Pawar, to contest the election.

The President of India is the head of state of the Republic of India. The President is the formal head of the legislature, executive and judiciary branches of Indian Democracy and is the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. The powers to pardon and clemency are vested with the President of India.

The President is elected, from a group of nominees, by the elected members of the Parliament of India (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) as well as of the state legislatures (Vidhan Sabhas), and serves for a term of five years.