President of India election on July 19: 10 big facts

New Delhi - The election for the President of India has been fixed for July 19. Votes will be counted, if needed, on July 22, said Chief Election Commissioner V Sampath this evening.

Here are 10 big new developments on this story

1.UPA expected to announce its candidate for President of India by Friday, June 15.

2.UPA chair Sonia Gandhi has invited key ally Mamata Banerjee to Delhi for talks tomorrow.  Mrs Gandhi will decide the UPA's candidate

3.The frontrunner among the UPA  is Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee who has cancelled a scheduled trip to Afghanistan. His office says his focus on the economy has kept Mr Mukherjee  in Delhi

4.Ms Banerjee has reportedly conveyed to the Congress that she will not oppose Mr Mukherjee because she will "be happy to see a Bengali" in the position.

5. However, she wants the Congress to announce him as its candidate before she commits her support.

6. Ms Banerjee denied reports that she  will use the presidential poll to further push her demand for a three-year waiver on 22,000 crores owed by her state to the centre against loans.  

7. It's not just the post of president that's up for grabs.  Jaswant Singh of the BJP, according to sources, is hoping to be made Vice-President.

8. That theory received a big boost from Mr Singh's appointment this morning with Mulayam Singh Yadav, whose Samajwadi Party provides external support to the UPA.

9. The BJP reportedly may be open to supporting the UPA candidate for president in exchange for Mr Singh being accepted as the vice-president.

10 Mr Yadav, Sharad Pawar and the DMK, all key allies of the Congress in the UPA coalition, have allegedly pledged -directly or indirectly, in Mr Pawar's case -to back Mr Mukherjee. So the  only Congress ally who has yet to come on board is Ms Banerjee.