Vice President Hamid Ansari filed his nomination papers for a second term this morning, flanked by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who later said he was "delighted" that there was so much support for the UPA's candidate.
"Well we are all very delighted that there is such a massive support for renomination of Hamid Ansari Saheb in the august office of the Vice President," the Prime Minister said.
Today's show of strength included UPA leaders like Sharad Pawar, TR Baalu and Farooq Abdullah, leaders of supporting parties like Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad and a number of senior ministers. Two left parties - the CPM and Foward Bloc - are also supporting Mr Ansari. The Congress-led UPA expects its nominee to sail through the election, which will be held in August.
The only Congress ally yet to voice support for Mr Ansari's candidacy is Mamata Banerjee. She surprised everyone yesterday by declaring that she would support the UPA's candidate for President Pranab Mukherjee after all, as she did not want to waste her party's not insignificant votes in the Electoral College. The Congress now hopes that she will do the same for Mr Ansari, who called her last evening seeking her support.
Back of the envelope calculations say Mr Ansari should get 470 votes out of an electoral college of 790. If Mamata Banerjee supports him, that would be 28 more votes. He needs 396 votes to win.
The NDA has fielded former minister Jaswant Singh against Mr Ansari and insists that it will put up a worthy fight.