Pranab Mukherjee, P A Sangma file nomination papers as presidential candidates

Purno A. Sangma and Pranab Mukherjee gesture after
filing his nomination as the presidential candidates
at the parliament house in New Delhi.

NEW DELHI: Both presidential nominees, United Progressive Alliance (UPA) candidatePranab Mukherjee and National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate P A Sangma on Thursday filed their nomination for the July 19 presidential poll.

Pranab Mukherjee sought the "blessing of god and cooperation of all" to get elected to the country's highest office.

In what was turned into a show of strength, leaders of most UPA allies, except for theTrinamool Congress, were present during the filing of Mukherjee's nomination. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Rashtriya Janata Dal's (RSD) Lalu Prasad were amongst those who witnessed the ceremony.

"I only wish at this time that we have the blessing of god and cooperation of all at this juncture," Mukherjee told reporters after filing his nomination at the Rajya Sabha secretariat.

As a candidate for the 14th presidential election, he said he was being supported by a "large number of parties who are supporting UPA government like Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party" as well as by other parties who did not support the government.

Listing the Janata Dal-United (JD-U), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) and the Shiv Sena, he said: "I am grateful to them as they have reposed faith in me to occupy the office which was occupied in past by great stalwarts of this country."

Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, Rashtriya Lok Dal's Ajit Singh, Lok Janshakti Party'sRam Vilas Paswan, National Conference's Farooq Abdullah, Indian Union Muslim League's E Ahmed and senior DMK leaders were amongst the other leaders present on the occasion.

Cabinet ministers P Chidambaram and Pawan Kumar Bansal, who is Mukherjee's election agent, were also present.

NDA's presidential candidate P A Sangma also filed his nomination papers and termed it a "victory of tribal unity".

Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik, Punjab chiefminister Parkash Singh Badal, Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar, BJP president Nitin Gadkari and party leaders L K Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley were amongst those who were present at the Rajya Sabha secretariat for the filing of the nomination.

"Today is a victory of tribal unity, that a tribal is filing his nomination for the post of president," Sangma told reporters ahead of submitting his papers to Rajya Sabha secretary general V K Agnihotri, the returning officer for the election.

"I will file my nomination today as a candidate sponsored by the Tribal Forum of India, nominated by the chief ministers of Odisha and Tamil Nadu and backed by BJP and other NDA allies."

Sangma also lamented that the Congress did not welcome the candidature of a tribal for the post of president despite the community having stood by the party.

"We wanted to express that tribals in India have all along stood by the Congress. We had expected Congress would welcome our request. However, the Congress did not come out in support of tribals," he said.

"We sought an appointment to meet Congress chairperson (Sonia Gandhi). We were asked to wait in the Central Hall (of Parliament) consecutively for three days. We could not get an appointment. We then met other leaders," Sangma added.

The filing of nominations marks the formal start of the race for presidency, in which Mukherjee appears to have a clear edge over Sangma.

The scrutiny of the nominations will be done on July 2, the last date for withdrawal is July 4, the poll will take place July 19 and counting of votes will be on July 22.