NEW DELHI, July 21: Victory of Pranab Mukherjee, the ruling UPA’s candidate for the presidential poll held on Thursday, is a foregone conclusion, but the final outcome will be announced after counting of the ballots on Sunday at Parliament House.

“The results of the presidential election will be known immediately after counting is over Sunday,” Rajya Sabha Secretary General and returning officer for the poll VK Agnihotri said here.

Agnihotri noted that the Rajya Sabha Secretariat has made necessary security arrangements for the counting that will take place in Room No.63 of Parliament House from 11 a.m.

Rajya Sabha officials, who have been entrusted with the conduct of the presidential poll, said all the ballot boxes from the States have reached Parliament House, where a strong room for storing them had been prepared.

India’s lawmakers, belonging to both the national parliament and the state legislative assemblies, had cast their ballots on Thursday to elect the nation’s 13th president.

About 95 per cent of the total 4,896 electors - 776 MPs and 4,120 assembly members - exercised their franchise at the polling centres set up at Parliament House and 30 other State and Union territories with assemblies.

Mukherjee is expected to bag 735,000 of the 1,097,000 votes, bagging the support of the United Progressive Alliance constituents such as the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Trinamool Congress, DMK, and National Conference, apart from supporting parties such as the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and others.

He also got the support of opposition National Democratic Alliance members such as the Shiv Sena and the Janata Dal-United and other smaller parties such as the YSR Congress in Andhra Pradesh.

His rival Purno Sangma, supported by Bharatiya Janata Party, Shiromani Akali Dal, Asom Gana Parishad, AIADMK and Biju Janata Dal, is expected to garner about 3,13,000 votes.

Interestingly, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav’s ballot will not be counted, as he had inadvertently voted for Sangma, though he had pledged support to Mukherjee, the first time, and then tore the ballot to vote a second time.

On a complaint from Sangma’s advocate and BJP leader Satya Pal Jain, the Election Commission had ordered that both the ballots be deemed invalid. IANS