The Hindu : National : Uma Bharti questions selection of Pratibha

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Monday, Jun 25, 2007
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Uma Bharti questions selection of Pratibha

Special Correspondent

“She does not have the calibre or stature to be President”

JAIPUR:

JAIPUR: Bharatiya Janshakti Party president Uma Bharti on Sunday questioned the United Progressive Alliance-Left’s choice of candidate for the post of the President. “Pratibha Patil does not have the calibre or the stature to be the country’s President,” she said.

Addressing the Pink City Press Club here, Ms. Bharti said the only encouraging aspect of the UPA-Left selection this time was that the person was a woman. Yet, the Congress itself had better candidates in the party to choose from, she felt. Asked whom she was hinting at, Ms. Bharti took the name of Union Minister Meira Kumar.

“What has been Ms. Patil’s contribution,” Ms. Bharti asked talking about a “conspiracy” in the choice. “The Congress president decided on a loyal and lightweight candidate keeping in mind the future political situations,” she said.

“Sonia Gandhi has the 2009 Lok Sabha elections in mind when the Congress, which would not have a majority to form a Government, would need an obliging President,” she said.

Ms. Bharti accused her parent party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, of continuing to be “directionless” and “bereft of any ideology.” “I am happy to be outside it,” she said. About the support her party had extended to the BJP in the recent Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections by withdrawing its own candidates, Ms. Bharti said she did that to “expose” the BJP.

“I withdrew the Bharatiya Janshakti candidates from the fray in order to show the real strength of the BJP in U.P. Otherwise, they would have blamed my party for losing in that State,” she said.

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