The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Pratibha Patil campaigns for votes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 07, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Pratibha Patil campaigns for votes

Special Correspondent

Some non-Congress MLAs meet UPA’s presidential candidate, pledge support

— Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

On the campaign trail: UPA presidential candidate Pratibha Patil arriving at the Vidhana Soudha to address Congress MLAs and MPs on Friday.

Bangalore: The Congress on Friday stepped up its campaign to garner as many votes as possible from Karnataka for the United Progressive Alliance’s presidential candidate, Pratibha Patil.

Several independent MLAs and those from some of the smaller political parties had a private meeting with Ms. Patil, who arrived here earlier in the day to launch her campaign.

Ms. Patil, accompanied by All-India Congress Committee spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan and Union Ministers Prithiviraj Chauhan, M.V. Rajasekharan, K.H. Muniyappa and Oscar Fernandes, also addressed Congress MLAs, MPs and associate members at the Vidhana Soudha.

Sources in the Congress said nearly 15 non-Congress legislators called on Ms. Patil and said they would vote for her in the election on July 19. The vote of each MLA from Karnataka has a value of 131 and that of each MP, 708.

None of the Janata Dal (Secular) legislators, barring those associated with the former Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, sought to meet the UPA candidate. The former Minister P.G.R. Sindhia, who is now part of the Surendra Mohan faction of the JD(S) has already said that he and the five legislators from Kerala, apart from M.P. Veerendra Kumar, MP, will vote for the UPA candidate.

The JD(S) leadership is yet to take a decision on which way the party legislators and MPs should vote.

Ms. Patil met the non-Congress legislators at a hotel on Racecourse Road in the presence of State Congress president M. Mallikarjun Kharge, AICC election observer Purushotam Goel, AICC general secretary in charge of Karnataka M.M. Jacob and Leaders of the Opposition in the Assembly and Council N. Dharam Singh and H.K. Patil.

Refutes charges

In her address to party MLAs and MPs at the Vidhana Soudha, Ms. Patil, referring to the charges levelled against her, said, “I have faced many challenges in my life. Despite the attempts to tarnish my image I will remain steadfast in my commitment to my fellow citizens and the country. Sixty years after Independence, our Republic will have a woman President.”

Mr. Kharge assured Ms. Patil that although the Congress had only 65 seats in the Assembly, nearly 100 legislators would vote for her. Mr. Dharam Singh said every Congress legislator would vote in her favour and Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s decision to field Ms. Patil was a historic one.

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