Sonia hosts dinner ahead of Prez poll

New Delhi, July 17 (UNI) Ahead of the July 19 Presidential election, UPA-Left candidate Pratibha Patil tonight interacted with the MPs and top leaders of the ruling coalition, Left Parties and the BSP at a dinner hosted by UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi in the capital city.

There was a huge turnout of MPs at the dinner at Hotel Ashok, attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his cabinet colleagues and Left leaders Prakash Karat and A B Bardhan, among others.

MPs from the Bahujan Samaj Party, which also announced its support for Ms Patil, were also present.

A majority of the MPs has already been here since yesterday in connection with a series of Standing Committee meetings of Parliament which are so timed as to facilitate the MPs to cast their vote in the Presidential election in the capital city.

Since there was no formal speeches, the leaders were seen in different groups and interacting with Ms Patil, Ms Gandhi and Dr Singh and Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi.

At one point, Ms Gandhi was seen discussing with Left leaders before the "buffet" dinner at the Convention Hall of the ITDC-owned hotel.

There were speculation that the Left leaders had briefly discussed with Ms Gandhi their choice of candidate for the August 10 Vice-Presidential election.

Though the dinner was essentially to facilitate an interaction between Ms Patil with the MPs, the leaders have apparently used the opportunity to discuss the Vice Presidential election and wide ranging issues.

"It is also a dinner in honour of Ms Patil who is sure to be the winner in the race to Rashtrapathi Bhavan," a top Congress leader said.

Though the dinner was proposed to be held on the lawns in the hotel, the security agencies had reportedly ruled out the idea. It was originally planned to host the dinner on the lawns at the official 10 Janpath residence of Ms Gandhi, but it had to be changed due to possible rains.

The decision of the "Third Front" to abstain from voting in the Presidential poll having furthered the winning chances of Ms Patil, the UPA-Left leaders did not concentrate on working out a last-ditch strategy for the July 19 elections.

Instead, their discussions revolved around the Vice-Presidential poll.

It has already been made clear that the UPA-Left nominee for the post of Vice President would be the choice of the four Left parties. Since the Presidential nominee was from the Congress, the biggest constituent of the ruling coalition, the Left Parties had genuinely claimed the post of the Vice-President for their nominees by virtue of they being the second biggest group supporting the UPA government.

The CPI(M) and the CPI had already made it clear that their Vice-Presidential candidate would be an a political person with secular outlook. Several names have been doing the rounds. But all the names were those from the minority community.

UNI