Jyoti Basu welcomes Pratibha Patil's candidature

Kolkata, Jun 15: Welcoming the candidature of Rajasthan Governor Pratibha Patil for Presidential election, veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu today described her as an 'excellent' nominee for the highest Constitutional post.

''Excellent. It is a very good decision,'' he told reporters after attending the CPI(M)'s state secretariat meeting when asked to comment on the woman candidate whose name was proposed by the Congress to garner the support of Left parties and UPA allies.

After a tussle with the Left allies over the possible candidature of Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Congress President Sonia Gandhi sprang a surprise yesterday to make possible a consensus by proposing the name of Mrs Patil as the UPA-Left nominee contending against BJP- backed Independent aspirant Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.

That the surprise nomination check-mated the Left parties in falling in line with the Congress choice was admitted by Mr Basu.

''We could never think of it,'' he said.

UNI