Pranab thanks ‘sister’ Mamata,seeks support

About the woman who precipitated the crisis of the last two days by rejecting his candidature but who today stood alone and isolated in Kolkata,Mukherjee said,“To me she (West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee) is like a sister… a valued colleague. I also seek her support.”

Speaking to reporters outside North Block,the finance minister said that the UPA chairperson and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had appealed to all political parties and leaders to extend their support for his candidature,and “I also join them in seeking the cooperation and support of all political parties who constitute the electorate”.

Speaking separately,the finance minister’s wife Suvra Mukherjee said,“I am very happy. He is a very nice person. If it is written here (on the forehead),it will happen.” She confided that politics is not discussed at the Mukherjees’ home,and that the minister likes to eat “Bengali food without oil and spices”.

Mukherjee’s daughter Sharmistha said she was happy her father had a chance to become president rather than prime minister “because he will be having some rest hopefully”. In Mukherjee’s ancestral home in Miriti in West Bengal,his 82-year-old sister said her brother had “touched the sky while sitting on the ground”.

With PTI inputs