The former Union Finance Minster had crossed the halfway mark and has scored more than 558,000 votes, officials said Sunday as counting continued. He will succeed Pratibha Patil.u00a0Mukherjee will take oath as new President on July 25.

His rival, former Lok Sabha speaker P.A. Sangma, was way behind with 239,966 votes as counting continued, Mukherjee's polling agent Pravin H. Parikh told IANS. "He has crossed the halfway mark. He is the president-elect," Parikh said.