'UNPA will take a 'correct decision' on supporting Shekhawat'

New Delhi, July 11 (UNI) The NDA today expressed hope that the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) would extend support to Independent presidential candidate Bhairon Singh Shekhawat as no formal decision has been taken by it to abstain from voting.

''The UNPA would be announcing their decision on July 14 and the NDA is very hopeful that they will take a correct decision,'' NDA leader and spokesperson for Mr Shekhawat Sushma Swaraj said here.

She said the campaign meeting of NDA leaders with MPs and MLAs throughout the country in support of Mr Shekhawat had been successful and the contact programme had gone off well with the members of the electoral college. The meeting with MPs and MLAs in Bihar will take place tomorrow, followed by Maharashtra on July 15, making the national exercise complete. In the second phase, the NDA would reach out to the electors through telephone.

She said regional level meetings were held at Chandigarh involving the MPs and MLAs from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir and at Guwahati for the MPs and MLAs of North-Eastern states. In all other places, state level meetings were held ''which were well attended'' and the NDA was happy about the progress, she added.

Asked for her reaction to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi's contention that the Vice President's staff should not identify him as 'Vice President but as a candidate in presidential elections' while connecting his telephones, Mrs Swaraj quipped that she ''pitied'' the Minister. ''He is not able to level allegations like misuse of aircraft, cars or any other perks of Mr Shekhawat, who is an incumbent Vice President. Mr Dasmunsi should know that he will remain the Vice President till August 18 whether he desires or otherwise,'' she said.

To a question about the absence of BJP rebels in Gandhinagar at the NDA MLAs and MPs meeting, she said many of those who were absent had sought permission and even former Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel, who was dissatisfied with the party affairs in the state, had assured that there was no question of MPs or MLAs supporting anyone else then Mr Shekhwat.

UNI