Sonia Gandhi the UPA Chairperson on July 18, 2012 will be hosting lunch for all the MPs belonging to the ruling party coalition as well as the supporting parties. The lunch will be hosted a day before they vote for the next President of India.
All eyes will be on the Trinamool Congress with a doubt if their 28 MPs will be attending the lunch. In a surprise announcement by Mamata Banerjee on July 17, 2012, she said that her party’s 50,000 votes in the electoral college would be cast for the UPA candidate Pranab Mukherjee.
Banerjee added that she was pledging her support with reluctance and that it hurt her to do so. Reports say that Mrs Gandhi had called Mamata last evening to thank her for her support and even invited the chief minister of West Bengal and her MPs for lunch.
However, Ms. Banerjee did not confirm if she would support UPA’s candidate Hamid Ansari for the presidential elections. But still the Congress has hopes to have all its partners together like it now has for the presidential elections. Ansari had also called Ms. Banerjee last evening to seek her support. The lunch will be hosted at the Ashoka Hotel in New Delhi and is aimed to seek support for the presidential elections for the UPA candidates.
