A Chinese lunch for presidential nominee

NEW DELHI: On Friday afternoon, when it was being speculated who would be UPA’s presidential candidate, Pranab Mukerjee walked out of his chamber to the visitors’ room and ordered a lavish lunch for a guest with whom he spent more than an hour.
It was rare for the FM, who usually is in office by 11am, stays on till 9pm when he returns home only to finish more pending files till midnight.The luncheon spread was lavish — soup, chinese fried rice, chicken and fish. The session continued till 3 pm when he returned to his chamber to clear files and prepare for the crucial 4 pm UPA meeting at the PM’s residence.
Will he be finally the President? Uncertainty was in the air in North Block even after the UPA chairperson announced Mukherjee’s name as peons and security staff of the FM’s office asked waiting mediapersons if his name was final and if the announcement meant that he was elected.
The new assignment will not be difficult having spent five decades in politics and a person who took keen interest in the Constitution ever since his student days. “I read constituent assembly debates published in newspapers when I was in class V in 1946, and preserved papers from my uncle who was a member of the constituent assembly,” he recently told TOI. Mukherjee said his interest was in Parliament and that was why when he was offered to contest as MLA in Kolkata, he had refused. Mukherjee’s father was an MLA for 21 years.