TNI Bureau: Senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee will resign as the Union Finance Minister on Sunday to file his nomination papers for the Presidential election, which will be held on July 19.
A day before his resignation as the Minister, Pranab visited his ancestral home in Birbhum, West Bengal. “This is my last visit to Kolkata as the Finance Minister because I am going to demit my office on June 24. After that I will not be able to speak anything either on government or on party matters,” he said today.
The 77-year-old Pranab will file his nomination papers for the Presidential election on June 28. He will file four sets of nomination papers, each having 50 proposers and seconders.
Pranab is likely to approach Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee seeking her support for the post of President. However, Mamata has been opposing UPA’s nominee Pranab as Presidential candidature.
The leader is having backing of Non-UPA partners like Samjawadi Party, BSP, besides other parties like CPI (M), AIFB, JD (U), Shiv Sena. However, the TMC, Congress’s key ally, denied giving its support to Pranab as the President of India.