Pratibha Patil to visit Patna tomorrow to garner support

Patna, July 9 (UNI) UPA-left Presidential nominee Pratibha Patil will arrive here tomorrow on a day's visit to garner support from the legislators in Bihar for the July 19 Presidential poll.

On her arrival here from New Delhi, Ms Patil would first hold talks with Pradesh Congress President Sadanand Singh and his party MLAs and MlCs before meeting legislators of all other constituents of the UPA in the state including the Rastriya Janata Dal(RJD), CPI and CPI(M)to seek their support, Bihar Pradesh Congress sources said here today.

However, to prepare the groundwork before her visit, AICC General Secretary in charge of Bihar and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh is scheduled to arrive here this evening along with Railway minister and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad.

Before a meeting with Ms Patil, both the leaders are likely to talk separately with their party legislators about the poll procedures.

From here Ms Patil would leave for Ranchi the same evening for doing the same exercise with the UPA and its like-minded legislators in Jharkhand, the sources added.

Incidentally, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is also scheduled to visit Patna for a day on July 17 to review the progress in state agriculture sector besides participating in a number of programmes with state Chief minister Nitish Kumar.

UNI