The Hindu : Front Page : Pratibha Patil files papers

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Sunday, Jun 24, 2007
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Pratibha Patil files papers

Special Correspondent

First formal step towards becoming first woman President

— PHOTO: V.V. KRISHNAN

BIDDING FOR THE HIGHEST OFFICE: UPA-Left Presidential candidate Pratibha Patil on her way to file the nomination papers at Parliament House in New Delhi on Saturday. UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other leaders accompany Ms. Patil.

NEW DELHI: Taking the first formal step towards becoming the first woman President of India, the UPA-Left candidate Pratibha Patil filed her nomination on Saturday.

Flanked by leaders of the ruling combine at the Centre, she submitted two sets of papers — each with 70 proposers and an equal number of seconders — to the returning officer, Lok Sabha Secretary-General P.D.T. Achary at the Parliament House here. She informed him that Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi would be her official representative in all poll-related matters.

Homage to Mahatma

Earlier, Ms. Patil visited the Rajghat and paid homage to the Father of the Nation. On arrival at the Parliament House, she was escorted to the returning officer’s room by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Mr. Dasmunsi.

Inside the room, senior Cabinet Ministers — a select few from the Congress and one each representing various UPA constituents — besides Left leaders and Congress Chief Ministers were in attendance to show their support for Ms. Patil, who greeted all of them with a demure ‘namaste’.

Limited space

What with the limited space in the room, a number of Congress leaders who came to Delhi for the nomination exercise, had to stand in the corridor along with mediapersons. Union Ministers A.K. Antony, Shivraj Patil, Arjun Singh, Sushil Kumar Shinde and Ambika Soni and CWC member Mohsina Kidwai were present.

Among the allies, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam was represented by Union Surface Transport Minister T.R. Baalu, the Nationalist Congress Party by Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, the Rashtriya Janata Dal by Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad and the former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi, and the Lok Jan Shakti Party by Union Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister Ram Vilas Paswan.

Representing the Left were Sitaram Yechury of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Gurudas Dasgupta of the CPI and Abani Roy of the All India Forward Bloc.

Barring Karan Singh, who is among the proposers for Ms. Patil’s nomination, all names considered for President — Mr. Mukherjee, Mr. Patil and Mr. Shinde — were present. From Ms. Patil’s family, only her husband Devi Singh Shekhawat turned up.

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