Praibha Patil urges Uttarakhand MPs, MLAs to vote for her

Dehradun, July 14 (UNI) United Progressive Alliance (UPA) presidential candidate Pratibha Patil today urged the Members of Parliament and Assembly from Uttarakhand to support her in the July 19 poll.

Ms Patil, who reached here today at about 1130 hrs, was welcomed by Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Chief Harish Rawat, Leader of Opposition Harak Singh Rawat, MP Vijay Bahuguna, AICC leader Motilal Vora, Bahujan Samaj Party state chief Suraj Mal, BSP MLA Mohammad Shahzad and other senior leaders.

The waiting media was not allowed to interact with her, and she was straightaway taken to the conference hall in a local hotel where MPs and MLAs of the UPA and other supporting parties.

Later after her meeting, the party issued the address she made to MLAS to the media. Urging MLAs to vote in her favour, Ms Patil said that her victory would not be ''personal but the victory of crores of general public.'' ''Secularism is the basic principle of the country and provides equal social benevolence and respective to all religions and communities,'' she said, adding that the right of development ought to conferred to each and every person, irrespective of their caste creed, religion and sex.

There are five Lok Sabha members and three Rajya Sabha members from the state. Out of the eight, Congress has five, BJP two and the SP one. Out of 70 MLAs, 35 belongs to BJP, the Congress has 20, BSP eight, the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal has three while three are independents. One seat is falling vacant following resignation of a Congress MLA recently.

UNI