Vayalar Ravi confident of Pranab Mukherjee winning Prez poll

New Delhi/Indore, June 20 (ANI): Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi has expressed confidence about UPA nominee Pranab Mukherjee emerging victorious in the race for Raisina Hill.

"We do not have any problem (of getting consensus on Pranab Mukherjee as the President). There will not be problem in southern part of India; even in Tamil Nadu DMK is with us. The other parties are yet to declare but we do not have any problem in getting consensus on our presidential candidate. Pranab Mukherjee will definitely win," he said.

Ravi also hit back at Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal for making baseless accusations against UPA ministers.

"Any Dick and Harry can make any comment against anybody, this is an unfortunate situation here today. So, in the most irresponsible way, this person (Arvind Kejriwal) who belongs to Anna's section makes such statements without any base or anything," said Ravi.

"That is not fair because all this is done for media publicity, that is the only intention and I know Indian people will look at it with contempt and I also, people like me look at it with contempt. Who are they? They cannot be sole agents of saving India," he added.

Kejriwal had earlier questioned the sanctity of presidential nominee Pranab Mukherjee even as he demanded probe into graft charges levelled against him.ejriwal said that Mukherjee's name features in the list of 15 most corrupt ministers in Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh's cabinet.

"Pranab Mukherjee who is been viewed as a candidate for the coveted post of the Indian president but I think his name also features in the list of 15 corrupt ministers of India. After corruption reports surfaced against him, he sent us a detailed letter in which he has rubbished al those allegations. We are preparing a detailed reply to that and will send it to him in the next two-three days," he said.

Kejriwal added that during Mukherjee's tenure as Defence Minister the War Room leak in the Headquarters of Indian Navy had taken place. However, the minister had glossed over the leak of sensitive naval secrets.

Questioning the Prime Minister's claim of a corruption-free cabinet, Kejriwal said: "The Prime Minister of India (Manmohan Singh) has always said that he is honest and now Pranab Mukherjee (federal Finance Minister) is saying the same thing. Prime Minister also said that all my 15 cabinet ministers are clean and corruption free."

"We want to know from the people of India, do they believe in all such statements? Do they think that the entire cabinet is clean, is Singh uttering the truth? Is this the probe process in our country? Will be blindly trust whatever the Prime Minister says? If everyone is honest then why are they scared of a detailed probe?" he asked.

Kejriwal further said that such corrupt ministers would never allow the Ombudsman Bill to be enacted, as they fear being indicted.

"Out of 34 cabinet ministers, 15 are involved in high-level corruption cases. If this cabinet implements a strict Ombudsman Bill, then it is sure that most of them will loose their position and will be sent to jail," said Kejriwal.

"None of them will want such a bill to be passed. Until and unless we get a clean cabinet, the Ombudsman Bill cannot be implemented. We are not putting any allegations on them, the allegations are being put by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG)," he added. (ANI)