GPCC hails victory of Pratibha Patil for the President's post

Panaji, July 21 (UNI) Goa Pradesh Congress President and Home minister Ravi S Naik described the victory of Pratibha Patil as a ''historic one as a woman had for the first time obtained the honour of becoming the President of India''.

Reacting to her election to the Prersident's post today, Mr Naik said Mrs Patil's role as an MLA, MPCC president, deputy chairperson of Rajya Sabha and lately, the Governor of Rajasthan, was ''not a small achievement, considering that she is a woman''.

The huge number of votes she had obtained proved a testimony of her acceptability for the highest position in the land and her victory rightly goes to the Congress President Mrs Sonia Gandhi, he said while thanking the members of the electoral college who supported the Congress-Left nominee.

AICC secretary Shantaram Naik, MP, said Mrs Patil's victory, ''despite crude attempts made by the BJP to tarnish her image through a low-level malicious propoganda, is a lesson to be remembered''.

''Though her victory was a foregone conclusion, history will record with contempt the BJP's attempt to denigrate the sacred electoral process of the President of India,'' he said here in a statement.

The BJP should, at least now, respect the position of the President of India and refrain from making similar attempts in future. Those who were saying,''Pratibha, who?'' had been aptly answered by the electorate, he added.

UNI