Pranab kick-starts campaign in Chennai

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Hailing the DMK as a ‘stable partner’ of the UPA, the alliance’s Presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee launched his campaign from Chennai on Saturday, even as RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav announced in Patna that his party would back ‘Dada’.

After the ceremonial exchange of silk shawls for the cameras and the warm handshakes with Kalaignar in his CIT colony bungalow, the former finance minister sported a broad smile telling reporters he was hugely hopeful of getting support of the other UPA partner as well, the unpredictable Didi, Mamata Banerjee.

“DMK is a stable partner of UPA-1 and UPA-II. Therefore, it is quite natural that I have started my campaign with the blessings and support of Dr Karunanidhi and from Chennai itself”, said Mukherjee, whose landing at the airport, his drive into the city, arrival at the DMK patriarch’s residence, meeting of Congress ‘voters’ at Satyamurthi Bhavan and subsequent engagements in the capital were all celebrated in grand style, rare in Congress affairs in the Dravidian state.

Reflecting on the special warmth that he enjoys with their thalaivar, having been Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s emissary on many occasions, the DMK brass arranged high-octane reception for Pranab at the CIT show, which literally kick-started his Presidential campaign.

Even the Prime Minister’s passing through the city en route from Puducherry to the capital went almost unnoticed when compared to the song and dance and the thousands of posters that greeted the ‘future President of India’.