Presidential candidate of United ProgressiveAlliance (UPA) Pranab Mukherjee arrived here Sunday on a day-long visit togalvanize support for his candidature.
Protest by a small group of pro-Telangana supporters greetedMukherjee outside the Begumpet airport. Raising slogans of 'Jai Telangana', theprotesters tried to stop his convoy but police foiled their attempt.
The protesters belonging to various pro-Telangana groupswanted Mukherjee to spell out his stand on the demand for statehood toTelangana.
Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, state Congress chiefBotsa Satyanarayana and party leaders welcomed the presidential candidate.
Mukherjee drove to Jubliee Hall to address a CongressLegislature Party (CLP) meeting. Accompanied by central minister Ghulam NabiAzad and Vayalar Ravi, he reached here by a special aircraft from Chennai.
After addressing the Congress MPs and state legislators,Mukherjee will meet leaders of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) at a hotel.
The Congress leadership reportedly tried to reach out to theTelangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) to seek theirsupport but it was not clear if leaders of the two parties would meetMukherjee.
It was also not clear if Mukherjee would call on Telugu DesamParty (TDP) chief N. Chandrababu Naidu to seek his party's support.
TDP, TRS and YSRCP have not yet announced their stand on thepresidential polls.