MPs, MLAs meet over dinner on eve of Prez poll

Mumbai, July 18 (UNI) Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Union Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde were prominent among the Congress-NCP ministers who attended a dinner meeting, hosted by Maharashtra Parliamentary Minister Harshawardhan Patil at the Cricket Club of India (CCI) here tonight on the eve of the Presidential poll.

Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil, Members of Council of Ministers, MLAs, Union Minister of Non-conventional Energy Vilas Muttemwar, Union Minister of State for Home Manikrao Gavit, State unit chiefs of Congress and NCP Prabha Rau and Arun Gujarathi respectively and AICC general secretary Margaret Alva were also present, sources said.

It was an informal get-together of MPs and MLAs on the eve of the poll, as they form part of the electoral college, who will exercise their franchise to elect the next president.

UPA Presidential nominee Pratibha Patil, who was to visit the city today, did not do so.

UNI