UPA nominee Pranab Mukherjee and his opponent P.A. Sangma, who is backed by BJP, filed their nomination papers for presidential elections on Thursday.

Submitting his nomination, Pranab reached out to Trinamool Congress and other parties seeking their support for the July 19 poll, which he appears set to win with a ‘thumping majority’.

Flanked by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and other leaders, Mukherjee handed over his nomination papers to V.K. Agnihotri, Rajya Sabha Secretary General and Returning Officer for the Presidential elections.

Dressed in a cream coloured bandhgala, 77-year-old Mukherjee appeared to be high spirits after filing his nomination.

As the lensmen vied with each other to click pictures of the veteran leader, he obliged by climbing on the footboard of his car and waved his hand. Soon after completing the nomination process, Mukherjee thanked parties like SP, BSP, JD (U), CPI-M, Shiv Sena and Forward Bloc for reposing faith in him and reached out to Trinamool Congress, the only UPA ally which has so far not supported his candidature.

"I seek the support of all those including Trinmaool Congress, who have not yet decided...I only wish at this time that let me have the blessings of God and cooperation of all at this juncture", Mukherjee said.

He said he will start his campaign on June 30 and continue till July 15.

Tribal leaders backing me: Sangma

On the other hand, P.A. Sangma claimed tribal leaders cutting across party lines are unitedly behind him and took potshots at Congress for not standing by his candidature for the President's post despite enjoying the support of tribals for decades.

"I only want to express that tribals in India have all along stood by Congress party. We had expected that Congress party would welcome and consider a tribal as its candidate," Sangma said, maintaining that Congress President Sonia Gandhi did not even give him an appointment for which he waited for three days.

"Many political parties have positively responded to our (Tribal Forum of India) request. But the largest political party with whom tribals have stood all along – the Indian National Congress – did not come out to support the cause of tribals. They will know the effect of this action," he said.

The former Lok Sabha Speaker claimed tribals in India ‘are united today and we will move in future together with tribal unity which has never been seen before in India’. Sangma appealed to MPs and MLAs to vote according to their conscience and claimed that there will be cross voting in his favour.

"Today is the victory of tribal unity that a tribal is filing his nomination for President of India's post," he said.

Sangma said that he would file his papers as a candidate of the Tribal Forum of India with Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his Tamil Nadu counterpart J. Jayalalithaa having nominated him. He is backed by BJP and some of its NDA allies.

‘Pranab will get thumping win’

Reflecting the enthusiasm in UPA over the support for Mukherjee's candidature, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said, "He (Pranab) will get votes beyond anyone's imagination. It is a one-sided affair. He will get a thumping majority".

The support announced by political parties to Mukherjee's candidature so far make it clear that he was likely to get over seven lakh votes in the electoral college of 10.98 lakh.

The UPA candidate is expected to visit Kolkata either on July 7 or 8 during which he is likely to meet Banerjee. Law Minister Salman Khurshid expressed hope that Banerjee will finally support Mukherjee's candidature and said, "One should always be optimist in politics".