Patil resolves to serve nation, AIMIM, TRS keep away

Hyderabad, July 6 (UNI) United Progressive Alliance-Left Parties combine Presidential candidate Pratibha Patil today resolved to serve the nation with humility unmindful of attempts to tarnish her image, even as the All India Majilis-E-Itihadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) kept away from her meeting.

Addressing a meeting of MPs and MLAs here, she opined that her election to the top post would be a ''victory for crores of citizens.'' After 60 years of independence, the highest office would be held by a woman, she said, thanking UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and all leaders of the UPA and its allies for selecting her as the candidate for the nation's top job.

Dejected by Ms Patil's controversial remarks on the origin of the 'Purdah' (veil) system in the country, the AIMIM, which had five MLAs and an MP, announced that it would abstain from voting in the July 19 Presidential elections.

Her remarks were unwarranted and amounted to interference in the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat), the party claimed.

Taking up cudgels for Ms Patil, senior CPI leader S Sudhakar Reddy countered the rival Presidential candidate saying Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat had joined the British Police in 1942 during the Quit India Movement and quit the same an year after the country got Independence.

Taking strong objection to the Opposition's smear campaign, Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy accused the BJP of resorting to character assassination with ''ulterior political motives'' which only exposed its ''political bankruptcy.

The TRS, which quit the UPA on the demand for creating a separate Telangana state, decided not to attend the meet as it would send a wrong signal to the people of Telangana, who were upset with the Congress for 'dily-dallying' on formation of a separate state, TRS sources said.

(EDs:Pick up suitably from related series) UNI