Patil not a natural choice of UPA: Ravi Shankar

Patna, July 10 (UNI) The BJP today ridiculed UPA's claim on giving preference to women empowerment in selection of Pratibha Patil as its presidential candidate, saying she was ''neither their preferred choice nor the natural one.'' BJP national spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad told mediapaerson here that had the Congress been 'really concerned' for women empowerment, it would have announced the name of Ms Patil as the UPA candidate long before the consideration of names like Pranab Mukherjee,Dr Karan Singh and Shivraj Patil as possible candidates for the highest constitutional post of the country.

''The name of External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee was rejected as he was far below in degree of loyalty to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, while Dr Karan Singh was not acceptable to them due to his affinity to Vedantic philosophy,'' he alleged while commenting on the raison d'etre on selection of Ms Patil as its candidate by the UPA.

Although Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil was all set to emerge as UPA's consensus candidate, the Left parties opposed it as they had some grievances against him due to certain rulings given by him during his tenure as Lok Sabha Speaker, he further added.

Mr Shankar reiterated his allegations against Ms Patil on misppropriation of funds of a bank floated by her in Maharashtra.She was also facing the charge of protecting her brother in a murder case and both issues were pending in various courts in Maharashtra, he added.

UNI