It felt like a general election, says Pranab

New Delhi: India's president-elect Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday thanked people across the country for his victory and said that with emotions running high it felt like another general election.

"I am very happy. I thank everybody for their love and support. I thank all the people of my country," Mukherjee told a Bengali news channel.

"In the last one month I have covered the entire country. And with the emotions and feelings that I have sensed in the common people revolving around this presidential election, it felt like it was not a presidential election but a general election.

"I am very happy, and I will strive to live up to the expectations and faith that people have bestowed on me," Mukherjee said in his first comments.

Mukherjee will be India's 13th president. He has crossed the halfway mark scoring more than 558,000 votes, officials said on Sunday as counting continued.