Prez Poll: Cong deplores BJP's refusal for consensus

New Delhi, June 15: The Congress today appealed to "all right thinking parties and citizens" to support the candidature of Rajasthan Governor Mrs Pratibha Patil as UPA candidate for Presidential election and expressed the confidence that she would be elected as India's first woman President.

"We are confident that she will go to the Rashtrapati Bhawan as India's first woman President,"Congress Spokesperson Jayanti Natrajan said.

"The Indian National Congress places on record its deep appreciation of the fact that in the 60th year of India's independence, the UPA has chosen a woman as its candidate for the high office of President of India," she said reading out her statement at the press briefing here.

Quoting the words of Congress President Sonia Gandhi that this is a historic moment for our democracy, Mr Natrajan said," We are very proud that our President UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi has taken this pathbreaking initiative and even more proud to be a part of the historic moment in our democracy." Criticising the attitude of the BJP on consensus for Presidential election,Ms Natrajan lamented that "at this crucial moment in India's history the Opposition BJP does not have the political grace ,the social commitment or the moral fibre to support the candidature of Mrs Pratibha Patil." The Congress Spokesperson said "her eminent and impeccable track record" and the fact that India will have its first woman President should have encouraged them to support her candidature.

"It is unfortunate that the BJP lacks the grace shown by the Congress party when we sat in the Opposition and came forward to agree on Dr Abdul Kalam as a consensus candidate,but also that they are so blatantly against the cause of woman,"Ms Natrajan said.

UNI