Sen. Eugene J. McCarthy (D-Minn.) said yesterday that he expects Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-N.Y.) '48 will declare his candidacy for the Presidential nomination before Monday.

He said that Kennedy's candidacy will split the anti-Vietnam vote and ensure President Johnson's re-nomination in August, but did not openly discourage the former Attorney General from entering the contest.

Sources close the McCarthy said that he will definitely stay in the race whether or not Kennedy enters.

Telegram Campaigns Begin

McCarthy's student supporters started a telegram campaign Wednesday night urging Kennedy not to run. A spokesman at McCarthy's national headquarters in Washington said that students in at least 23 states are directing the effort.

At Harvard, the Young Democrats' executive committee voted 9 to 0 last night to send telegrams to both senators re-affirming the group's support for McCarthy. The YD's decision to back the Senator last November led to the chapter's expulsion from the Massachusetts Young Democrats.

But some other students that had supported McCarthy changed their views. Charles Reynolds 4G collected over 100 student signatures on a telegram to McCarthy urging him to step down. The 100--including several McCarthy campaign workers--also signed a companion telegram encouraging Kennedy to run, should McCarthy leave the race. Both telegrams expressed admiration for McCarthy's political stands.

The signatures were collected yesterday at Harkness, the Divinity School, and Radcliffe. The telegrams will be circulated tomorrow in the House dining halls.

Yesterday afternoon Kennedy's press secretary said that the Senator's Washington office had received 2500 telegrams. He said that 90 to 95% of them are encouraging Kennedy to declare his candidacy.