Pranab to seek family blessings

Union Finance Minister and presidential candidate of the ruling UPA, Pranab Mukherjee will visit his home state of West Bengal tomorrow to seek the blessings of elder sister Annapurna Bandopadhyay and elder brother Pijush Mukhopadhyay, both of whom live in his ancestral village Mirati in Birbhum district.

After landing at Dum Dum airport at 8.45 tomorrow evening, Mukherjee will leave for Mirati next morning. He will return to Kolkata the same day and leave for Delhi on Sunday 5.45 pm.

This will be his first visit to West Bengal after being chosen by the UPA as their presidential candidate. However, he will be back in the city after resigning as finance minister end of this month to canvass for himself.

"Before embarking on a visit to different states, Pranabda has chosen to come to his village to seek the blessings of his sister and brother. He will also offer his pranam to the deity at the Shiva temple at Jegutia near his house," Ravi Chattaraj, Mukherjee's aide at Mirati, told The Indian Express over phone. He also said the entire village is ready to receive Pranabda, who is all set to enter Rashtrapati Bhavan as the 13th President of India.

Mukherjee, whose nickname is Poltu, is a favourite of his elder sister who is eagerly waiting to meet him.

In Kolkata, various Congress MLAs and other leaders are waiting to meet Mukherjee at his residence and discuss the party's strategy. "We are all going to meet him," Manoj Chakrabarty, a former minister in the state and MLA from Murshidabad, said.

Mukherjee's son Abhijit, who is Congress MLA from Nalhati in Birbhum district, is hosting a dinner for party MLAs at the MLA hostel at Kyd Street today.

Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury, minister of state for science and technology, is hosting another dinner on June 26.

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