Mamata makes U-turn, decides to back Pranab

Kolkata. Finally breaking her silence ahead of the July 19 Presidential poll, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said her party will support Pranab Mukherjee, clearing the last hurdle on his path towards Raisina Hill.
The decision of the party, the second largest constituent in the UPA with 19 MPs in Lok Sabha and 9 in Rajya Sabha, comes apparently under pressure from within the party to back Mukherjee, who would be the first Bengali to become a President, and not to ignore local sentiments.
But Mamata did not make the announcement with grace. She said she took the decision with a heavy heart and sometimes decisions have to be taken for the larger interest of the people, state and democracy. “It would have been nice if we’d been saying this with a smile on our faces, unfortunately it is not so,” she told reporters after a meeting with several MPs and MLAs at Writers Building, Kolkata.
She made a bare reference to Bengali origins of the UPA candidate saying “Pranabda is from Bengal but we have taken the decision due to our commitment to the people”.
The Trinamool decision was immediately welcomed by the Congress party in Delhi and by Mukherjee’s son Abhijit, an MLA in West Bengal.
With Trinamool’s decision, Mukherjee has the support of nearly 7 lakh vote value in an electoral college of nearly 11 lakh. Apart from UPA partners, he also has the support of CPI(M) and Forward Bloc and BJP allies JD(U) and Shiv Sena.
Banerjee was virtually cornered in the UPA after she was ditched by Samajwadi Party last month after she and Mulayam Singh sponsored the name of former President Kalam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former West Bengal Governor Rajmohan Gandhi.
Asked why her party has chosen to support Mukherjee with whom she has blown hot and cold in the recent past, Banerjee said “We took the decision in the interest of the UPA coalition and in greater national interest and keeping in mind the people’s interests.
“We are not supporting any individual. But we have no option. It is a tough decision we have taken but not to please anyone. We took the decision reluctantly. The pleasure we would have got is missing in our decision today.”
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